Somalis vote in Mogadishu’s first local election in decades

People queue to cast their votes during the local election in Mogadishu, Somalia, Thursday, Dec. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh)

Somali authorities imposed tight security Thursday for the first direct elections held in the Mogadishu region for nearly 60 years which were boycotted by opposition leaders.

Some 10,000 security forces were mobilized and the city airport was closed for the election seen as a test ahead of a presidential ballot next year in a country struggling to emerge from decades of conflict, an Islamist insurgency and frequent natural disasters.

Long queues formed outside some polling stations, but numbers had dwindled significantly by early afternoon, an AFP correspondent saw.

Election commission chief Abdikarin Ahmed Hassan said in a statement that all stations had closed without incident at 1500 GMT. He said the count would start “soon” but did not say when results would be released.

“This is a great day,” declared Guhad Ali, 37, showing the ink on his finger proving he had cast his ballot. Another resident, Ali Salad, 51, said he queued for hours to cast his vote.

Universal suffrage was abolished after Siad Barre took power in 1969. Since the fall of his authoritarian government in 1991, the east African country’s political system has revolved around a clan-based structure.

Since 2006, authorities in the Horn of Africa nation have been fighting Al-Shebab fighters linked to Al-Qaeda.

Security has improved in the capital but just 60 kilometres (40 miles) away, fighting continues. In the past year there has been a bid to ambush the president’s convoy, missile fire close to the international airport, and an assault on a detention centre.

According to the electoral body, there are more than 1,600 candidates contesting 390 local council seats in the southeastern region of Banadir, where Mogadishu is located.

Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has championed the reintroduction of direct elections, saying on Thursday they were “the future of the Somali people”.

But the ballot has been boycotted by the opposition Somali Future coalition, and a number of federal states have dismissed it as a bid by central government to concentrate power in Mogadishu.

Political tensions

Former prime minister Hassan Ali Kheire, a member of Somali Future, said the coalition believed the government had orchestrated the election to extend the president’s mandate.

This he warned, “is not going to be accepted”.

Although Barre abolished direct elections nearly six decades ago, they have been reintroduced in the northern region of Somaliland, which declared independence in 1991 but is not internationally recognized.

The semi-autonomous northern state of Puntland also held direct local elections in 2023 but abandoned the system for local and regional polls in January 2025.

The vote had been postponed three times this year before going ahead on Thursday.

The political strain has fuelled tensions ahead of next year’s national elections, when parliament’s mandate expires in April and the president’s term ends in May.

In September, the International Crisis Group said the government’s attempt to replace clan-based indirect voting with direct elections “could plunge the country back into turmoil if leaders fail to compromise”.

Without “an inclusive electoral roadmap”, Mogadishu could witness a repeat of the deadly street battles of 2021, when elections were delayed and then-president Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed attempted to extend his mandate.

The opposition has threatened to organize a rival presidential ballot in 2026 if the federal government insists on direct elections.