Attachments
Puntland’s experimental local council elections in October 2021 were lauded successful in terms of decentralization of authority and democratization at the state level. Led by successive political leaders and a host of other stakeholders and actors in Somalia’s oldest federal member state, the election culminated to what observers described as a political progress in-the-making.
The one-person, one-vote elections held in Qardho, Eyl and Ufeyn districts were a move away from the 25-year-old indirect electoral process – where traditional clan elders appoint the region’s 66-member assembly – and were seen as free and fair which should reassure those weary of previous government manipulation or the outright hijacking of electoral processes. According to one minister, democratic elections are the “only escape route for Puntland from political stagnation”.