On December 15th of last year, Somalilanders went to the polls for the first time in over 30 years to elect their representatives in municipal councils. Somalilanders were not only able to cast their votes in a peaceful and free environment but also accepted the election results as generally fair. This does not mean that the last electoral process was without any problems. In fact there were some mistakes, a number of them of serious nature, that had been committed during and after the voting. For instance, there were reported cases of fraud in which some ballot boxes were allegedly stuffed with ballot papers purportedly cast by "phantom" voters. Though the allegations were never proven, yet there is still a general view that something of this kind might have happened. The problem partially had to do with the fact that both the National Electoral Commission and the 6 political organizations which contested the local elections made the mistake of assigning staffers whose organizational loyalty and job qualifications were under doubt, to do the monitoring and verification of voting at the polling stations on their behalf. With Presidential elections scheduled in Somaliland for April 14, 2003, it is imperative that all stakeholders particularly the NEC and the leaders of UCID, UDUB and KULMIYE, come together to discuss now how the integrity of next Presidential elections could be best protected.
The people of Somaliland are confident that the polling will be conducted peacefully and freely, but they are still not sure whether the elections will be devoid of fraud. So far, the issue of fraud prevention is the electorate’s biggest worry. The NEC together with the 3 contesting political parties are therefore required not only to come up with enough safeguards against the possibility of election rigging, but also must ensure that such a mechanism is in place before, and on, April 14.
In this regard, both the NEC and the 3 contesting political parties need to strengthen their institutional capacity for monitoring and verification of the balloting. With the exception of Britain, which donated last week a modest amount of $100, 000 to the NEC, the rest of the international community has been conferring resources and legitimacy instead on Somalia’s warlords meeting in Kenya since Oct 2002. It is a shame, but the democratic process in Somaliland must and will go on.
In the meantime, members of Somaliland's House of Representatives, who are expected to begin today their debate on the budget bill submitted by the government, are reminded that while they can continue their deliberations on this subject as long as deemed necessary, they need to act swiftly to ensure that money allocated for the NEC is released immediately.
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