District commissioners created electoral obstacles for candidates not aligned with the government.

Evidence

The governors and district commissioners had a vital role to play in the election because they controlled government machinery in their localities. For instance, district commissioners, as agents of the Ministry of Interior, received pre-election registration forms from party candidates and verified the authenticity of party voter lists and signatures. These authorities created obstacles for parties and independent candidates not aligned with the regime. In setting up this system, Egal dealt with political matters in the North, and Sharmarkee and Yassin managed Southern affairs. — Abdi Ismail Samatar, Africa’s First Democrats, 1013

Categorization

• XREF: Shows a mechanism of democratic erosion similar to that later used by authoritarian rulers elsewhere in Africa. — connects to: Entrenched incumbents resist redistricting even as the same tools oppress others — Daryl Levinson and Benjamin I. Sachs, Political Entrenchment and Public Law, 89