Believe me, Somaliland's election matters

With voters in Somaliland heading to the polls this week, the next president will need to make difficult decisions if he is to lead the country to international recognition at last

Women dressed in the colors of the Somaliland flag campaigning during parliamentary elections in 2005. Image: F.O. CC BY-SA 2.0

With 3.7 billion people in 72 countries eligible to cast ballots this year, it is perhaps not surprising that some elections are going underreported. That’s a shame when every vote cast can be so meaningful—especially when many have given their lives for this basic right. That is on my mind as my homeland of Somaliland prepares to vote.

This will be the sixth time that Somaliland holds a presidential election since declaring its independence in 1991. Though no state formally recognised Somaliland’s dissolution and withdrawal from its union with Somalia, my country has enjoyed greater peace since—thanks in no small part to the remarkable leadership of our first president, Abdirahman Ahmed Ali Tuur. 

The presidential election to be held this week provides an important opportunity for Somalilanders to take stock of the state of our country, to be thankful to those who gave everything for our right to decide our leader and direction, and to understand what might be holding us back. 

Democracy has become rooted, firmly I believe, in our country—confounding those who doubt such a thing is possible in the Horn of Africa. Democracy is not, however, a destination but a journey, and our revolution remains unfinished.

We need to consider if the institutions we have built for ourselves are fit to deliver what our people and our state need, so let us consider the presidency itself. At five years, our presidential terms are not unusually long, but delays and postponements have led to unusual extensions - our elections this year, for example, should have gone ahead in 2022. 

A state that wishes to be taken seriously and be recognized as an independent nation needs to take its own democratic institutions seriously. Our leaders must respect their terms and be limited—in my view to a single, non-extendable term. Anything more tends towards authoritarianism, or at least to entrenchment and stagnation.

It is not just our democratic institutions that we must consider, but the political institutions we expect to shape them too. Somaliland and the Horn of Africa have extraordinary strategic importance. World powers vie for the rights to set up commercial and military logistics bases in the region. In this global context, Somaliland’s politics can feel too parochial, and still too concerned with clanism—the kinship groups that are the primary means of social organization for all Somalis.  

Politicians and political parties too focused on marginal concerns lack a national and international vision. We must, as a people, stop thinking only of clan: the more clannish we are, the weaker we are. If we are to be a strong, respected and modern nation, we must ensure that power is shared across the people, and not simply in the hands of one group. This is a mindset that can mean we are not choosing the best candidates for high office. We need leaders who surround themselves with the best, regardless of clan - and we must stop recycling the same names into these positions. A person who has made a mess before is rarely the right person to clean it up. 

We cannot have candidates jumping from one party to another at the 11th hour. That is not a serious politics—it’s a politics that benefits politicians and not the people. 

The strategic opportunities available to Somaliland offer much to our whole population, but they also present risk. When states approach us, we need to know if they are doing so because they are offering partnership, rather than exploitation, greed, and corruption. This is a form of neo-colonialism that we would only be able to blame ourselves for if we fall victim to it. We should not be opening the door to those who would exploit us all over again—we fought for independence and democracy to be in control of our own destiny.

People use words like ‘strongman’ to describe authoritarian leaders, while democratic leaders are often pictured as weak, at the mercy of political whims. But in reality, strong accountability provides a democratic leader with far more leverage to get a good deal from their strategic partners. They have the power to walk away from a deal if they know they cannot sell it to their own voters. A corrupt leader going into a negotiation will never get a good deal: unless you are a superpower, there will always be a bigger, more corrupt fish just waiting to swallow you up.

Our politics needs to evolve and be allowed to do so. We need to expand the political power base so that all Somalilanders are included—every clan, young people, men and women. Indeed, we need to promote the participation of women as a priority.

In the parliamentary elections held in 2021, there were just 13 women among the 246 candidates for office. Not one of them was elected. Women in Somaliland are deeply involved in the hard work of politics, they are on the campaign trail, on TikTok, out there getting people registered. It is gatekeeping by political elites that is barring women them from political leadership and preventing more women from being selected as candidates. As a nation, we cannot claim to be truly democratic without women. 

Over thirty years since we asserted our independence, we must recognise the progress we have made, but also where we have not moved forward. We have proved to ourselves we can take the responsibility but for everything we have achieved, ultimately international recognition of our independence is something we still do not have.

To demonstrate that we are a nation, our presidential candidates should concern themselves with three priorities. Strengthening and expanding our democracy, so that it is truly inclusive of women, inclusive of all clans, and resistant to cronyism, authoritarianism, and parochialism. Consolidating our diplomatic ties and partnerships, having an understanding and vision for how we can use our strategic opportunities to further our own interests primarily, and develop our security and economy. And thirdly, to grow our economy, ensuring that it benefits our whole nation. 

That Somaliland has endured as a self-governing entity is a tribute to the vision of our founding president. Abdirahman Ahmed Ali Tuur prioritized peace above all, choosing to unite clans rather than settling scores, embedding a culture of peace in our nation. Politicians often work to diminish, distort, or erase the legacy of those who laid the foundation for the freedom they now exploit. Our next president needs to govern for all of Somaliland, with a national and international vision.

We Somalilanders owe those who have gone before us a huge debt, and the way to repay it is by going forward, achieving their dream of a free, peaceful, just and fruitful Somaliland. Everyday is a new opportunity to do so, election day is one more chance to take another step forward.