For the fifth time since 2000, Somalia is searching for an electoral model that advances the country’s democratic process. This is both a cause for celebration and a cringe-worthy setback. Discourse around electoral models indicates that the country is unfailinglypursuing a democratic path in a region where autocracy dominates body politics. At the same time, Somalia has consistently failed to shed a clan-based political dispensation and leap into universal suffrage once and for all. That is especially true for a country with democratic traditions going back to independence in 1960. In fact, the country’s first president, Aden Abdulle Osman, was also the first African president to lose — and concede defeat – in an African presidential election. President Osman rejected calls by his political base to remain in power for the sole purpose of deepening a nascent democracy…
