The government has named the days citizens will go to the polls, but the country’s politics are still miles from agreeing on how they will get there.
On Thursday, the head of the electoral commission went on state television and announced that parliamentary elections will be held on April 15, 2027, with the presidential vote to follow a month later, on May 15.
Abdikarim Ahmed Hassan, who chairs the Independent National Elections and Boundaries Commission (INEBC), said the presidential date flows from a rule that a president’s five-year term begins on the day of swearing-in.
The timetable was barely out before the opposition shot it down.
At the heart of the quarrel is President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s mandate. His term, which began in 2022, expired earlier this year. In May, his government pushed through a constitutional amendment declaring a “transition period,” even though it had agreed with the opposition to hold elections.
The opposition boycotted that vote and has refused to recognise the changes since. Critics also accuse the president of using the changes to push through party-based elections and replace the clan-elder system, which they call a power grab.
Two former presidents were quick to weigh in. Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo took to X to call the decision a “dangerous threat” to Somalia’s statehood, urging all sides to agree on a way forward before any date is fixed.
Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, once a leading voice in the opposition, warned that a contested process could produce parallel elections and, worse, civil conflict.
The government, for its part, welcomed the dates as an important step for democracy and urged all parties to take part in good faith.
Analyst Samira Gaid was blunt. She says there is no political agreement behind the elections, adding that the government is effectively Mogadishu plus “two or three allied” federal member states. In her view, the vote could deepen confrontation in the rest.
Speaking to Al Jazeera earlier this month, President Mohamud acknowledged that serious security challenges remain.
He said al-Shabab has no presence in the major cities and is unlikely to take over the country. But the group still holds territory in parts of the south and centre, and has struck deadly blows in Mogadishu and across the border in Kenya in the past.
