Somalia: one-person, one-vote

Somalia’s president, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, is planning to restore universal suffrage next year in effect ending a decade of indirect voting.

Under proposals agreed at a four-day conference in Mogadishu, voters would directly choose a national president for the first time since General Siad Barre seized power in 1969. The first direct vote would be in local elections in June next year, followed by federal elections later.

The BBC’s Hassan Arouni spoke to Mohamed Mohamed, a Somali analyst, to find out more about the proposed changes to the voting system.

(Photo: Women queue to vote for Somalilands elections. Credit: by Mustafa Saeed/ AFP via Getty Images).