Somalia’s election commission has announced that parliamentary and presidential elections will be held next year. Abdikarim Ahmed Hassan, chief of the Independent National Elections and Boundaries Commission (INEBC), made the announcement on the state broadcaster on Thursday.
He said votes for members of both the lower and upper chambers of parliament are planned for April 15, 2027, with the presidential vote scheduled for May 15. A commission statement said the presidential timing followed a rule under which a president’s five-year term begins on the date of swearing-in.
Dispute over the president’s term and the transition period
President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s second term, which began in 2022, ended earlier this year. His government then declared a “transition period” through a constitutional amendment in May, despite an earlier agreement with the opposition to hold elections.
Opposition parties boycotted the vote on that amendment and have rejected the changes since. Mohamud is also pushing for party-based elections to replace the existing system of choosing clan elders, a move critics describe as a power grab.
Former President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo called the decision a “dangerous threat to Somalia’s statehood and future” in a post on X. He urged an agreement among all factions before any decision on the polls is made.
Government and critics divided over the election plan
Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, another former president who previously led the opposition, warned that a contested electoral process could lead to parallel elections and even civil conflict, according to a news agency. The government, for its part, welcomed the polling dates as an important stage towards strengthening the country’s democratic system. It called on all parties to take part peacefully and in good faith.
Analyst Samira Gaid was less optimistic. “There’s no political agreement to hold those elections,” she told a news agency. She added that the government’s processes were leading to further fragmentation and that the administration was essentially made up of Mogadishu and two or three allied member states.
Gaid said elections would bring conflict and more confrontation within the remaining federal member states. Scepticism was also visible in the capital, where some residents called the announcement one-sided. Omar Said, a Mogadishu resident, said that setting an election schedule through a process driven by one side, and rejected by the opposition, amounted to declaring a new conflict.
President Mohamud on security, the United States and Ethiopia
In an interview earlier this month, Mohamud said Somalia still faced significant security challenges. He acknowledged that the al-Shabab group had no presence in the major cities and that it was unlikely to take control of the country.
Al-Shabab emerged from the Islamic Courts Union in the mid-2000s and pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda in 2012. It has fought the federal government for years, holds territory in parts of southern and central Somalia, and has carried out deadly attacks, including in Mogadishu and neighbouring Kenya. Mohamud said the United States remained Somalia’s strongest partner in the fight against “terrorism”.
On relations with Ethiopia, Mohamud described ties as good. He said Mogadishu did not object to landlocked Ethiopia gaining sea access through a joint agreement to use Somali ports for its economic interests. Addis Ababa had signed a memorandum of understanding with Somaliland on sea access in January 2024, which Somalia condemned as a violation of its sovereignty. The two countries later agreed to ease tensions.
