Political party influence skewed representatives’ views away from the rural majority’s wishes

Evidence

The only exception is the area of Itala. That discrepancy appears to be a consequence of the fact that the influence of political parties was much stronger on the representa- tives than on the mass of the people. The statements of representatives can- not, therefore, be regarded as a rule as a true expression of the wishes of the population and can be accepted only in so far as they are confirmed by village interviews. If this is borne in mind, it appears that the great majority of the population would accept any government that would bring peace and security, that a number of them asked for the return of Italy and that the request for a Four Power Trusteeship for ten years does not correspond to a genuine desire of the tribes. — Abdi Ismail Samatar, Africa’s First Democrats, 261

Categorization

Category: Factual Claims

Related

• The Four Power Commission found party representatives misrepresented popular opinion in 1948. (similarity 0.89)
• Village-level Somalis, unlike their representatives, did not really back the SYL platform (similarity 0.86)
• Italians counted on rural tribalism to keep allied parties in power. (similarity 0.79)