Somalia ex-minister’s presidential quest tests rigid patriarchy
Friday July 16 2021
Somalia’s former Foreign Affairs minister Fawzia Yusuf Haji Adam who has announced her candidacy for president. PHOTO | COURTESY
Summary
If the federal electoral commission accepts her candidacy, she will be only the second woman in Somalia’s history to contest the presidency.
In 2004, Asha Ahmed Abdalla sought Somalia’s top leadership position. That vote was held in distant Kenyan capital Nairobi as Mogadishu then was an arena for warlords.
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When Somalia’s former Foreign Affairs minister Fawzia Yusuf Haji Adam announced her candidacy for president in the next elections, the reaction in Mogadishu was mostly muted.
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Somalia had initially planned for universal suffrage, which would have been the first time since 1969. But delays in passing a new Constitution and setting up institutions capable of running those elections meant that cannot happen now.
A Somali woman celebrates after the results of the election on November 16, 2016 in Baidoa. PHOTO | SIMON MAINA | AFP
Clan strength
But the clans that produce the delegates who vote for MPs may just be as strong this time around.
According to the model, elders from the four main clans, and a fifth group of smaller ethnic communities, work together with local electoral officials to nominate delegates who are then trained by the National Electoral Commission before they vote for MPs.