Dr. Ali Faqi@FaqiAlis
President @HSM says Somalia has officially entered the era of “one person, one vote.”
Now let us examine the masterpiece of democracy that reportedly took place in Baidoa:
1. First, candidates were kindly invited to register through a JSP link and join the party. Because under JSP democracy apparently comes with mandatory membership.
2. Candidates were then encouraged to bring as many voters as possible. In simple terms: welcome to the vote marketplace. Prices reportedly ranged from $5 to $20 per voter depending on competition, demand, and seat availability.
3. Want to run for parliament? Wonderful. Just pay the small “democracy activation fee” of $1,500, conveniently shared between the party and the electoral commission. Very modern system.
4. After that, actual votes reportedly became less important because the real counting seemed to happen somewhere between the chairman of the commission and the JSP secretary-general.
5. Then came the transparency phase. After deciding who they actually wanted, the results were announced. To make everything look slightly democratic, a few seats were generously distributed to coalition parties, commonly referred to by Somalis as “hidden JSP.”
6. Interestingly, only JSP candidates had the honor of seeing their names publicly announced. The rest of the parties apparently received a polite “thank you for participating” message with only the number of seats attached.
7. And finally, for the grand finale, some people who reportedly won were removed anyway because they failed the famous “trust test.” In this new democratic model, winning votes is apparently not enough. You also need management approval.
So to summarize:
They control the commission.
They control the voting machines.
They control the counting process.
They control the results.
And somehow this is still called competition.
At this point, I honestly do not know whether to call this an election, a business franchise, or a fully managed political subscription service.
Here are two men who decide who is and who is out.
