The president of Somalia, Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, on Friday has signed into law a new bill that could lead the country to hold its first democratic elections in 50 years. The law is set to replace a system in which clan elders nominated delegates who elected members of parliament who in turn voted in the President.
The last general elections where multiple parties competed largely freely was held in 1969 before Siad Barre seized power. Since then, the country at the Horn of Africa has fared poorly both in economic and in political terms, with its democracy rating consistently at very low levels. Since 1991, the country is divided between a de-facto independent region in the North and the rest of the country where various factions have been competing for power. Somalia is currently ranked as the second most fragile state in the world by the Fragile States Index project.
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