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by Adan H Iman
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
The voter registration drive currently underway in Somaliland resulted from a recommendation of the International Republican Institute ( IRI ) after the 2005 parliamentary election. The institute found problems in that election and in a report issued after the election the Institute observed:
Efforts to vote multiple times were common and grew in number
throughout Election Day, particularly among young people. IRI
observers noted a number of well-organized efforts to move voters
between polling stations to facilitate multiple voting. Somaliland
electoral law restricts vehicle movement on Election Day only to
those authorized by the NEC; in all regions IRI visited , observers
spotted large numbers of trucks and other vehicles full of voters.
So in the opinion of the Institute, the numbers from the parliamentary election were overstated. The results of the 2005 parliamentary election, which the Institute found overstated, were:
| Awdal |
133,777 |
| Hargeisa |
253,229 |
| Sahil |
52,695 |
| Sanaag |
89,286 |
| Sool |
20,557 |
| Togdheer |
121,751 |
| Total |
670,322 |
In an effort to remedy the multiple voting discerned during the 2005 election, the Institute recommended that “ a central voter registration be created in Somaliland to ensure that multiple voting is more difficult in future”. Still the tentative results of the voter registration are alas in some regions, such as Togdheer and Sanang, nearly three times that of the parliamentary election. The voter registration, which was expected to eliminate voter irregularities, is itself riddled with massive irregularities which in addition to multiple registrations and obtaining registration cards without any finger prints, also entailed alleged widespread attempt to circumvent the system by involving underage children in voter registration. Tentative numbers released by the National Election Commission regarding those who, legally and illegally, registered are.
| Awdal |
133,000 |
| Hargeisa |
420,000 |
| Sahil |
60,000 |
| Sanaag |
210,000 |
| Sool |
not yet available |
| Togdheer |
330,000 |
| Total |
1,153,00 |
No body knows what kind of conclusion the Inter-peace Team, which is conducting the project, will draw from the way the voter registration was handled. The computer software will no doubt detect a substantial number of multiple registrations. Even after the multiple registrations are eliminated, however, there will be still be substantial discrepancy in some regions-due to the alleged mobilization of minor children who otherwise would be ineligible to vote- between the number of names registered now and those who went to the polls in the 2005 parliamentary elections. Remember the idea of voter registration was born in the minds of the International Republican Institute ( IRI ) when irregularities involving multiple voting were observed during the 2005 parliamentary election. The benchmark to be used must be that the number of people in a fraud - free voter registration in each region of the country must be smaller than votes cast in each region in the 2005 election, because as was pointed out earlier, the votes cast in 2005 as determined by IRI were overstated in all regions and included multiple voting.
The people who were involved in multiple registrations accrue no direct benefit in their illegal actions. The people who have direct benefit in multiple registrations are politicians. If Somaliland’s image in the eyes of the donor agencies, and the world is impaired, the politicians who engineered the registration fraud should be held responsible.
A proposition is being floated in one website which makes a correlation between the lands mass of each region and the number of people who register. The argument goes that the bigger the size of the region the more its registered voters ought to be. For example Togdheer is the biggest region and therefore it should be entitled to the largest number of registered voters.
This argument has no merit whatsoever. If land mass is the determinant of population size, Hargeisa region which is the most populous, and has three times that of Togdheer, should have three times the land mass. The fact is population in Somaliland is concentrated in the urban areas and agricultural parts of Hargeisa and Awdal while the rest is sparsely populated. No color-coded pie chart, with a wrong premise, can change this observable reality written in stone. Evaluation of the voter registration will employ scientific toots such observation of human activities and computer data analysis of those activities. Take it from me: no consideration will be given to the square mileage of any region. .
No voter registration at all is better than one fraught with massive fraud. A fraudulent registration, if adopted as a basis of electing a president, and as the basis of allocating parliamentary seats, will engulf the country in political and social crisis. The tentative numbers released has the potential to skew political power in favor of some regions while disenfranchising others, which is a recipe for disaster. We should be aware that political crisis in Somaliland will be a fertile ground for Al Shabab Islamists to breed.
But the resilience and ability of the people of Somaliland to overcome all obstacles should give solace to all of us. How many times have we experienced serious problems in the past only to see our people come together and eventually find solutions. Deserving special credit are the elders who spearhead such efforts and never rest until they find a solution that is good for the country. The last time they intervened was when the controversy regarding election schedule for president and voter registration reached an impasse. I call these elders Sober Men, because they harbor no personal agenda or interest but the interest and welfare of the country in their minds and hearts.
Well now again, as in many times before, we will need the involvement of these Sober Men because Somaliland is at a critical junction.
Adan H Iman, Los Angeles
Email: [email protected]