Somalia’s 1961 constitutional referendum was mostly free and fair

Evidence

The constitutional referendum took place in the spring of 1961, and the major opposition turned out to be from Hiran and the central part of the North. No irregularities in voting were reported by the opposition from the North or Hiran, but that was not the case in two hamlets in the South. To be sure, these two fraudulent cases marred what was otherwise an overwhelmingly free and fair referendum. Nonetheless, when all was said and done, the majority of the people supported the new constitution, and a significant negative vote in Hiran and central part of the North only underscored what became obvious: the two breaches in the South were not deliberate government policy, as noted earlier. — Abdi Ismail Samatar, Africa’s First Democrats, 713