Somali President hassan Sheikh Mohamud announced that his government will committed to holding universal sufrage.
The move is aimed at droping the previous system of indirect voting, which has been on table for the past 20 years.
“The next election… God willing… will be one-person-one vote that is based on a political party system,” Mohamud said late Monday.
“Party platforms will be the market for selling political ideas,” he told legislators gathered in his palace in the capital Mogadishu.
The country’s next polls are planned for May 2026.
Somalia has not held a direct multi-party election since the 1969 parliamentary election, which was immediately followed by Siad Barre’s military coup in October of the same year.
“We are setting up a five-year plan that focuses on Somalia’s long-term vision for what the country will look like in 2060. The plan will pave the way for future generations of Somalis to achieve great developments every five years,” he said.
