Last year Puntland State of Somalia began a democratisation process. The local pilot elections held at Ufayn, Qardho and Eyl in October 2021 had been hailed as an epochal event. The young and elderly exercising their right to elect local councillors sent an unequivocal message: genuine decentralisation will lead to one person, one vote poll to elect MPs and a President in 2024.
The heavily centralised system that gives Puntland Presidency an absolute power on public coffers and controls the legislature is overdue for reform. The tradition-bound Puntland political system legitimises itself through the involvement of traditional leaders to select MPs, who in turn serve the incumbent President at the expense of constituencies they nominally represent at Puntland State Parliament. This model of governance is unsustainable given the demographic changes that call for progressive policies to address the youth bulge.
Three decades ago the Somali youths were treated as the coals of the civil war. Gradual state-building initiatives in Somalia since 1998, when first autonomous administration was declared in Garowe city, meant an emphasis laid on a culture of peace in which the budding civil society found time and space to rebuild primary, secondary and tertiary educational systems destroyed by the civil war. The number of university graduates in Puntland has doubled since 2005 (tripled, according to some estimates).
Decentralisation is a key feature of the democratisation process in Puntland. It enables regions and districts to assess their needs, keep tabs on their budgets and hold their elected representatives accountable.
There is no a dearth of transformative ideas or leaders eager to contest in the marketplace of political ideas. The democratisation process has several inbuilt benefits. It provides capable political leaders with the space to formulate and pitch policies to citizens in all Puntland districts and villages; it ends the political monopoly for a handful of politicians to exploit subclan sentiments and impoverish their supporters who are worse off under the current system.
The 2021 conferences of Puntland political associations demonstrated that serving districts and villages should take primacy on organising periodic presidential elections that banish political accountability from governance in Puntland.
With only 15 months to go before the mandate of the incumbent Puntland administration ends, President Said Abdullahi Deni last night expressed genuine commitment to implementing the second stage of the democratisation process to conduct one person, one vote elections. It less likely that one political association will win majority of votes if Puntland presidential and parliamentary elections get conducted concurrently. This approach to the democratisation process, in my opinion, boosts good governance because a new president of Puntland State will draw legitimacy from popular vote albeit, possibly, leading a minority government. Districts will be able to deliberate decisions before the parliamentarians discuss it. This form of transparency is what now is lacking in Puntland.
Decentralisation will bring to an end corrupt practices such as granting illegal fishing licences to foreign companies, parallel forces, uncompetitive bids for government contracts and irresponsible monetary policies to print Puntland shilling without extensive discussions.
By implementing the second stage of the democratisation process, Puntland State of Somalia will pioneer the march towards good governance based on genuine decentralisation. There is no excuse for not taking this challenge for the benefit of the Somali citizens in Puntland State of Somalia.
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