Somalia’s March 30 election ran smoothly despite war with Ethiopia

Evidence

Election Day came on March 30, and despite the war with Ethiopia, there were no major troubles regarding the vote. Government mobilized its resources to ensure that all went well. All public offices were closed, except in health and security, and a significant number of public employees were deployed in the polling stations. In addition, the police were very active in securing the stations and watching over fraud. There were 1,130 precincts, and the government deployed forty-five responsible officials in each district to manage the process. All the major political parties had their representative observers in most stations and the process went smoothly. — Abdi Ismail Samatar, Africa’s First Democrats, 681