Somali Minister of Ports and Maritime Transport Marks Historic One-Person-One-Vote Election

Somali Minister of Ports and Maritime Transport Abdulkadir Mohamed Nur announced that he has registered to vote in the upcoming election, which will be held under a “one person, one vote” system for the first time in 56 years.

In a post on the U.S.-based social media platform X, Minister Nur stated that he completed his voter registration in Waajid district, located in the Bakool region.

“It is a great honor for me to witness the official launch of the voter registration process for the elections being revived in our country after 56 years, based on the ‘one person, one vote’ principle,” Nur said. He emphasized that this marks the beginning of a new democratic era that allows the Somali people to directly elect representatives who will lead them in politics and governance.

Nur added, “I firmly believe that Somalia is now at the right moment to transition toward an inclusive, transparent, and credible electoral system.”

Highlighting that the direct voting system would restore public trust in the state and strengthen the accountability of leaders to their citizens, Nur described the elections as a historic turning point for the country.

He noted that for the past two decades, Somalia has been governed through indirect elections, while the public has long yearned to exercise their democratic rights freely and directly.

Minister Nur’s participation in the voter registration process from Waajid, a strategically important district surrounded by the al-Shabaab terrorist group, drew particular attention.

The last direct elections in Somalia were held in 1969. Since the civil war in 1991, the country has been governed under a “4.5 system”, a clan-based power-sharing model in which citizens do not vote directly. Instead, members of parliament are chosen by clan delegates, who then elect the president.

The federal government aims to strengthen democracy by transitioning to a direct voting system based on the “one person, one vote” principle.

Planned for implementation in 2026, this model is seen as a historic step toward enabling the Somali people to directly participate in governance. However, security challenges, technical limitations, and administrative disputes in some regions remain major obstacles to the process.