President Osman feared the SYL would exploit state resources to win elections.

Evidence

President Osman was worried about the governing party using state resources and its control of the state’s administrative apparatus to gain undue advantage in the municipal elections and consequently setting the stage for its dominance in the forthcoming parliamentary vote. He urged the prime minister and his colleagues to run an honest election. The president had encouraged the prime minister to ensure that representatives of the national police force be present inside the polling station to guard against fraud, but the government did not honor his plea. — Abdi Ismail Samatar, Africa’s First Democrats, 668

Categorization

• QUESTION: This reveals early tension between President Osman and the SYL government over electoral integrity — worth chasing how this friction evolved toward the 1969 coup.