Somalia’s Vote Rigging: One Vote Equals 60,000 Dollars Abdulaziz Al-Mutairi

Somalia's Vote Rigging: One Vote Equals 60,000 Dollars

 Abdulaziz Al-Mutairi   

No Patriotism in Somalia Parliament & President Selection – Money is the Master

It is heartbreaking to watch the corrupted process of parliament and presidential selection, where everybody in Mogadishu is involved: The Tribal Elders, MPs and Presidential Candidates. The MPs paid to the elders to be nominated in the new parliament; candidates of the Parliament Speaker post paid between $10,000 and $30,000 per vote; on 29th Aug 2012 the money-making started over the nomination of the President of the country. Finally, there are reports coming out from presidential election that vote rigging reached $50,000 - $60,000 per vote over nomination of the president, and even some candidates asked their supporters in the parliament to picture their voting paper using smartphones, in order to ensure that supporting MP voted in their favor.

Such reports illustrates the level of corruption in Somalia Presidential and Parliamentary election, and the question is: Will such corrupted politicians lead the country out of the crisis?!

The corruption is at the peak in Somalia - the poorest and most unsecure country in the world. The politicians are very selfish and don't care the disadvantaged citizens who don't get the daily meal. Millions of dollars has been circulated in Mogadishu by the corrupted politicians without sense of patriotism and nationalism; They collected millions of dollars out of the aid funds and donations to the poor.

It is clear to the international community that such politicians are using dirty-money to win the top posts in the country, and knowing many of them has been accused for corruption.  The question lingering is: Can corruption solve the problem in Somalia? And why the international community remain blinded over such wide-spread corruption?

Firsthand reports in Mogadishu ensured that many corrupted candidates are distributing luxury cars to the MPs in order to win their votes. Luxury Cars in Mogadishu!!!!  There are no infrastructure and ninety percent of the citizens are under poverty and living on aid. Every year there are famine in Somalia and people die for hunger.

International community must understand that justice and fair distribution of the power that can bring long-lasting solution to Somalia, instead of supporting the 4.5 system that gives the power to few tribes leaving the voiceless majority uncounted.

It is obvious that such selfish and corrupted politicians (e.g. modernized warlords) could have taken arms against each other, if not the pressure created by the presence of the African Forces (AMISOM).

The world is building a corrupted and mysterious administration that don't have strong bases for longer run, instead the latter could have support capacity building and educating the public against corruption and terrorism.

I doubt if these corrupted politicians could have support the Road Map, if Al-Shabab injects larger sum of money into their blood than the international community. We could have seen many of such politicians growing beard and joining Al-Shabab lines.

It is very delighting to see the AMISOM and Kenyan forces chasing Al-Shabab out of the southern Somalia, particularly the recent military victories in Marka and Kismayo cities. However, international community must know chasing Al-Shabab and building muscles of these corrupted politician will neither lead to stable government in Somalia nor will end Al-Shabab terrorist activities. It is highly possible that such corrupted politicians and MPs serve Al-Shabab secretly because their key in life is "Money" and keeping the country in chaos. Somalia's politicians don't serve humanity and lack patriotism.

The dirty money in Mogadishu has been used in every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain control over the government institutions. The new government of Somalia will not be an independent from its financial sponsors, which puts the nation under terrible circumstance. The situation in current delegation process in Somalia could be described as One-Vote-One-Dollar.

Money has no motherland; financiers are without patriotism and without decency and their sole object is gain.

The International Community, African Union and UN must invest in the areas that helped itself in the horn of Africa. The Aid donors must focus on the areas with basic modern government structures like Somaliland that has functioning and elected government, in addition to elected parliament, instead of using tribalism and corruption to create government in Somalia. It will be almost impossible to have strong and effective government in Mogadishu via the current corruption selection process.

Vote fraud and rigging will not bring stability in Somalia.





References: The Money Masters.



By\ Abdulaziz Al-Mutairi

Email: az.almutairi@yahoo.com