The Recessed SL Voter Registration

In a time when Somaliland has started to perfect its nod of someone coping to the challenges ahead and appears to burnish its home-grown democracy by harnessing own ability to succeed in voter registration for its upcoming presidential election, Clan-politics’ intrigues has given vent to proselytizing “Censorship” over supposedly “voter registration” in certain SL regions.

While we all wish it were not otherwise, applying the guiding principles, code of ethics, rules and regulations set forth to govern the voter registration fairly to all SL regions should have emboldened our aspirations and the hope we profess in our unity march for better Somaliland.

The establishment of the NEC aimed to serve as the linchpin in the fundamentals of fairness and transparency in our elections and came at the beginning of what is meant to be our societal shift, when new ideas (partisan) are challenging old African doctrine (Clannsim) along with our attempt to prove that we are different than proper Somalia to cajole World community into doing their part – our independence recognition. The NEC, however, flunked its first big test when it has not adequately responded to series of quandary that began shortly after Voter registration.

I cannot say I am surprised by the plethora of reports about voter registration irregularities. From the history of fraud that often stems from clans’ scrounging to outnumber each other in African Countries, this should not be unexpected in Somaliland. When power is up for grabs, clans with the blessing of clan-politicians will do anything, behind the scenes, to get it. But SL people are yet to come to grips with the fact that Clan -Politicians who always tries to be everything can eventually face accusations that, behind it all, they’re really no one at all.

Unlike our sister state in the South, our approach to issues has always been circumspection and prudence from bottom-up. But the current Voter Registration, in my opinion, was anything but. Fraud will be much more frequent when we do not have the right approach. The right approach would have been that the local governments should first register and issue ID cards to their respective locality residences. And as a backstop against all fraudulent such as underage registration, intra-regional citizens’ movement at the time of voter registration, and registering some one without his/her presence (by proxy), citizens would be mandated to bring their Ids for his/her identity reassurance at the voter registration localities. Many, like this writer, feared that nothing good could ever come from a faulty approach.

Not all regions are suffering to the same degree from this faulty approach, though. According to observers, pattern irregularities regarding voter registration in Awdal included but not limited to: not following procedure; not respecting working hours; not placing enough registration papers and data operators; and an out-dated tools that are not orderly synchronous in operation, which when summed up has fettered the capacity of throughput of the very few working computers/printers to cope with the larger number of voters lined up at the registering localities.

Despite the concerns voiced by Awdalities, young and old, over their region’s voter registration irregularities, however, NEC remained mute and action less and that was the deflating ending to their courting of ensuring fairness and equal treatment. Along with data operators’ dishonesty and unskilled ness and the frequent computer failures, the situation has exacerbated to a level that only 40% of eligible Awdal voters were registered. It could therefore be said about NEC members’ subsequent announcements of different counts of Awdal voter preliminary results at different times were inextricably tied to NEC determination to win accolades for “doing” it rather than ensuring its procedural and fairness. As President Andrew Jackson wrote “Great evils … flow from such a concentration of power in the hands of a few men irresponsible to the people.”

It can be worrisome news for any conscientious Somali Lander about: why our Somaliland central community intellectuals and Media acted coyly to this? Where is our moral high ground for yearning fairness and justice for all?

We should not be doing voter registration unless we have the right approach to it and until our SL people completely apprehend its regard. For fairness, this recessed voter registration should not the groundwork for anything we intended to do with.

Sharmarke Ali

Email: sharmarkeali@yahoo.com