Pro-Italian opposition parties threatened to boycott the 1959 election

Evidence

The first step in the electoral process was for parties to register their ranked candidate lists in each district. The SYL had its lists ready, but the opposition was not as prepared. Haji Musa Boqor, the Interior minister, informed the Speaker of the assembly that the opposition parties (former pro-Italian parties, which Osman dubbed the Devil’s Pact) would boycott the election because the government would not accept open and fair competition. — Abdi Ismail Samatar, Africa’s First Democrats, 364