A Major Step

After several years of fruitless negotiations, the political landscape in Somalia has taken a major positive twist following the announcement that from 2024, Somalians will start electing their President and other officials by direct vote. The move which ends the system of indirect vote that has often sparked conflict and clan battles for decades has been highly welcomed by many observers within and out of the country. Initially, clan heads and elders elected lawmakers in both the federal government and regional states. Some of those who failed to win, orchestrated widespread insecurity that paved the way for a fertile operational ground for Islamist insurgency. 
To many political observers, the present decision which came at the end of a four-day meeting that also saw the authorization of only two political parties to compete in the polls is a major step that needs to be consolidated. This is because the aim of the reform is to encourage the multiparty political system that is independent and corruption-free. Apart from Somalians of all walks of life having the right to directly vote their President for the first time since 1969 (when Siad Barre seized power), the endorsed agreement which sees the implementation of a single presidential ticket for which voters would choose a President and vice-president, thus doing away with the post of Prime Minister...