By Mohamed A. Abdillahi

1. The Anxiety of the Voter Registration Results

It is common knowledge that the fiasco over Somaliland’s first Voter Registration Project is developing into a showdown between the self-proclaimed 3 national parties on one hand and between the Riyale administration and the civilian population of Somaliland on the other. So, as we pray for the best in these Holly Ramadan days, new buzzwords like “the Server” and “High Treason” keep mounting on us, only to complicate things and add more confusion to our minds. With no solutions on the horizon, the Riyale administration opted to employ reprisals and intimidation, which only increases tensions and propels a volatile situation to violent confrontation. Yet the vast majority of the citizens have difficulties to sort out the core issues and understand the circumstances surrounding the looming crisis of the Voter Registration.

The public incomprehension of the essence of the conflict is largely caused by the National TV and Radio. Despite the fact that the national media operates on public funds, those institutions have been turned into propaganda channels that exist for the sole purpose of glorifying the image of the administration. They are akin to the state-run media that existed in the former communist Soviet Union. The National TV and Radio are now dedicated to broadcasting twisted versions of the local events. In particular, the National TV assembles parade of liars on daily basis to support concocted stories of the Voter Registration Results.

Hence, misinformation orchestrated by the state, lack of access to an alternate broadcast media at the local level, and rumors that often circulate in the Somali traditional oral methods of news sharing collectively cast a shadow of anxiety and uncertainty over the future and the events that led to the crisis.

In this article, the writer attempts to elaborate some of the key issues that are behind the political wrangle by presenting the chronology of the events that led to the current stalemate. In doing so, the author intends to provide sufficient and impartial information about the ill-fated voter registration to enable the ordinary person to fully understand what is at stake. At the end, the reader will hopefully get a good grasp of the mistakes that precipitated the conflict as well as the roles of the different players that should be held accountable for the ominous consequences of the crisis.

2. Description of the “Server”

The word “Server” is a term used in Computer Science and it refers to Client-Server model. The Client-Server model provides a general problem-solving view to the developers of Information Technology (IT) systems. In the Client-Server model, the system under consideration is divided into a Client and a Server, where the client submits requests to the server and the server responds with either “OK, your request is fulfilled.” or “Sorry, unable to complete your request.” In this general concept, the client and the server can be two computer programs running on the same computer or on two separate machines. In the case of two programs running on separate computers, the hosting computers often assume the same names (client and server) respectively. Please note that, the Client-Server model is useful conceptual depiction in solving real world computing problems because it hides (encapsulates) from the client the details of the process on the server side.

Now, in the Somaliland Voter Registration Project, the National Electoral Commission (NEC) acquired off-the-shelf database software called Microsoft SQL Server 2005 to become the National Register. The National Register is where all the data collected during the registration project will be stored and permanently kept. The Microsoft SQL Server 2005 is a high capacity database server that supports simultaneous access of hundreds of users (clients) over a network. The Somaliland NEC also purchased a computer designed to host servers like the Microsoft SQL Server and that computer is correctly referred to as the Server. Therefore, when political figures and the media talk about the “Server”, they are speaking of the electronic warehouse that supposedly contains the personal data taken from you and me by the NEC in 2008.

In fact, such systems (Microsoft SQL Server running on a server computer) are used by most of the money transfer (remittance) companies that operate in Somaliland. Today, almost all the Somali remittance businesses have deployed some version of the Microsoft SQL Server (or similar database server) and they made it accessible over the Internet which enables the agents of a particular remittance business to share the money-transfer transactions worldwide. The remittance agents mysteriously call this capability as their “online” services but they are obviously smarter and more sensible than the members of the Somaliland NEC who purchased the technology but failed to utilize it effectively.

Since Internet access service is available in the urban centers in every region of Somaliland, the NEC could easily make the central database Server at the NEC headquarters in Hargeisa accessible to all the registration centers in the major cities via the Internet, just like the remittance businesses do. The deployment of short-term Internet connection at the registration centers in the cities would have enabled the NEC to capture more than 80% of the voter registration data directly into the Server online. Nevertheless, the utilization of the Internet technology was not absolutely necessary for the execution of the voter registration project as discussed below.

3. The Registration Concept

Registration process was intended to take place at registration centers which will become polling stations on the Election Day. This means, the list of the registered voters will be at hand at each polling station on the Election Day, and hence people must register where they will vote.

The registration system was designed to collect the registrants’ data at each registration center (polling station) with the utilization of modern electronic registration kits. Most polling stations were equipped with 2 registration kits and a power generator. The registration kit consists of a laptop computer, color printer, fingerprint scanner, and digital camera. The National Electoral Commission (NEC) purchased 380 registration kits and those kits were used by 360 registration teams to register eligible voters one region at a time.

Two members of the registration team (NEC officials) were trained to capture the registrant’s data at registration center and store it in the computer. The registrant’s data consisted of:

1.       Personal alphanumeric information like the name, age, place of birth, polling station, etc.

2.       Unique identification number of the registrant generated by the computer.

3.       Digitized photo.

4.       Scanned image of the index finger of the right hand.

In principle, if the operator fails to enter any part of the registrant’s data into the computer, the system will reject to store the personal record, and hence will not print the ID cards for the registrant. However, the designers of the registration software allowed an option that exempts the fingerprint for anyone who may not physically have the required finger or the right-hand or anybody unable to reach the scanner because of sickness or old age.

At the completion of the registration of each region, the laptops would be connected to the NEC’s local area network where the data on each laptop computer would be automatically transferred to the central database server (this process is called replication). Once all the data of the region is uploaded to the central database server, Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS application software) would be run against the data to catch any persons who might have registered more than once. A team of officials would then adjudicate the duplicates identified by the AFIS software by comparing the additional data of the duplicate records. Records found duplicates would be reported to the NEC and consequently flagged as ineligible in the database. Finally, the qualified voters list would be printed for each polling station and that list would be used for verification of the voters on the Election Day.

4. Where Did This Simple Process Go Wrong?

The optional fingerprint exception that was intended for the rare cases (sick/old and individuals who do not have the index finger or the right hand) was activated in the computers for more than half of the registration centers. In other words, the registration teams in the field under direct orders from the members of the National Electoral Commission deliberately ignored to capture the fingerprint images from the registrants. They took the images of different fingers at some locations and left out the fingerprint images altogether in others. As a result, the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) was unable to filter out the duplicates in the database server as required. This deems the purchase of the AFIS software which has a price tag of $140,000.00 USD meaningless. Yet, in every region, the National Electoral Commission promoted the registration activities as a competition between the area clans, thus alluring the politicians and traditional leaders to organize the members of their respective clans to register as many people as possible. This has created a sense of fierce rivalry between the clans, whereby all the clans in Somaliland raised funds to transport their members to the registration centers and so as to show their numerical supremacy and clan prestige in comparison to their neighbors. Unfortunately, misuse of the registration procedures and raising tensions between the rival clans throughout the country is the tip of the iceberg of the NEC numerous disgraceful mistakes.

5. The Undisclosed Blunders of the NEC

 Besides the flagrant abuse of the data capture features of the registration software in the field, the NEC has committed other serious blunders during the registration which are not yet disclosed to the public as discussed below.

5.1 Mismanagement and Corruption

The NEC’s bidding processes and contract awarding procedures were conducted in an obscure and inexplicable manner. For example, the winner of the most profitable contract - the procurement of the registration kits and the development of the user interface software for the SQL Server database, was officially publicized as a Danish company named Copenhagen. But it turns out this company has no previous record of executing similar contracts. According to the Danish Chamber of Commerce, the company was registered in Copenhagen for the first time in 2008, which suggests that the company was conveniently founded for the purpose of winning this particular contract, which constitutes a premeditated scam.

Moreover, the funds allocated for the promotion and public awareness of the registration, which amounted to $250,000.00 USD, was fragmented into 50 small contracts signed with different local NGO’s. In this scheme, each NGO was awarded a $5,000.00 USD contract but the NEC representative entered an under-the-table verbal agreement with every NGO to the effect that the NGO would receive half of the contract amount without performing any work. In effect, the local NGOs were asked to complete the paperwork and split the money with the members of the NEC.

Additionally, another $50,000.00 USD fund earmarked for the monitoring of the registration process was mysteriously spent without any monitoring contract agreement. The purpose of the monitoring fund was to hire an institution that can evaluate the progress of the registration activities and insure the correct execution of the process. This is where the data capture problems would have been revealed and duly corrected.

5.2. Legal Violations and Infringement of Citizens’ Rights

The Somaliland Electoral Law No. 20, Article 9 directs the NEC to employ local staff to manage the registration database under the supervision of a National Registrar. But the position of the National Registrar required by law is vacant until today. That is, the National Electoral Commission failed to employ a National Registrar in breach of the law that warrants the establishment of the NEC as an independent organ. Amazingly, some of the best and the brightest Somaliland professionals have applied the position but were rebuffed and blatantly denied the opportunity in defiance of the citizen’s rights enshrined in the constitution.

5.3 Constitutional Transgression

After the completion of the registration activities in January 2009, everyone anxiously waited to know the outcome of this expensive and pain-staining project. To the surprise of the nation, the NEC released the highly anticipated results of the registration on July 14, 2009 by simply declaring all the collected data as unusable for the coming elections. Furthermore, the NEC conclusively announced that the presidential elections scheduled for the next September will be held without the use the voter registration.

Apparently, the members of the NEC lack the mental capacity to understand the immediate ramifications of their decisions. Perhaps they are impaired by their collective ignorance or arrogance to realize that:

1.       Our constitution provides the elected national parliament with the power to decide whether or not to use registration in the elections. The National Electoral Commission has no power to revoke legislations passed by the parliament.

2.       The registration project costs Somaliland a valuable time of more than one year and about 14 million US Dollars in foreign aid, and hence cannot be discarded without accountability. If the NEC can get away with the waste of the resources of such magnitude, we may as well legalize gangs and armed highway men in our streets.

At last, the NEC committed the mother of all mistakes which is now posing a serious threat to the relative peace and stability that has been prevailing in Somaliland since 1998.

6. Conclusion

The mistakes discussed in the previous sections are not mere accusations leveled at the Somaliland National Electoral Commission. They are all based on factual events that can be substantiated with supporting evidence. Therefore, the verdict is that the primary responsibility of the current political crisis in Somaliland rests with the National Electoral Commission. In other words, the members of National Electoral Commission (with the exception of the two members appointed after the registration) should be immediately dismissed and eventually brought to justice. However, let us not forget that the members of the commission were handpicked by the self-proclaimed 3 national political parties and the Guurti. In reality, the problem with the NEC started at the selection of 7 inapt low caliber individuals for the job. Apparently, loyalty was the only criteria used for the selection, deliberately disregarding other important factors such as education, experience, and most notably the principle of gender balance. Hence, the leadership of the 3 parties should be held responsible for being so detached from the society. Anybody that has any connections with the local community cannot possibly make such a poor judgment.

Ironically, President Riyale’s attempt to blame the mistakes of the NEC on Interpeace is adding an insult to the injury. It is really sad to witness an elected President that habitually insults the intelligence of the people who elected him in good faith! Mr. Riyale has the nerve to come on the TV and call on his opponents “to abide the law” while he is protecting outlaws – the NEC. It is a replay of the unprecedented AL-Jabri cartel last year when the President was defending the illegal monopoly of the livestock trade.

Of course, Interpeace cannot come out clean if a formal investigation is conducted. But as an international NGO, Interpeace has neither mandate nor responsibilities for the Somaliland population. Conventional wisdom tells us that Interpeace should be confronted and questioned from where they got the permission to take over the responsibilities of our National Electoral Commission.

For all we know, Interpeace employed expatriate staff to manage the Server in place of local professionals which is a violation of the Somaliland Electoral and Labor Laws. The Riyale administration had every opportunity to assess and compile Interpeace’s wrongdoings and perhaps demonstrate them to the donors. Instead, President Riyale made a hasty and thoughtless decision to expel Interpeace from the country, which is widely interpreted as a cheap tactic of making a scapegoat for the incompetence of his NEC. Once again, the President has reaffirmed his disregard for accountability. However, his albatross protection of the NEC can backfire and cost him the support of many voters. It certainly raises questions about his initial intentions when he appointed a group of all-male morons for the highly sensitive responsibilities of the National Electoral Commission.

Author: Mohamed A. Abdillahi

Email: madoole@hotmail.com

Hargeysa, August 2009

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