The no-confidence vote disproved North-South and clan-based readings of Somali politics.

Evidence

Third, conventional analysts of Somalia often think the major political watersheds are the North-South divide or along clan lines. Once more this vote demonstrated that such claims of North-South divide were dubious, as nearly half the Northern MPs voted against the government, which had just granted their region a disproportionate number of cabinet seats and some of the most important portfolios. Finally, others asserted that the governing logic of politics in the country was clan affiliation. Again, the vote defied such assertions because the majority of Hussen’s genealogical group in the SYL voted against his government. — Abdi Ismail Samatar, Africa’s First Democrats, 751

Categorization

• QUESTION: What alternative explanatory variable explains this Northern and clan voting pattern if neither geography nor genealogy predicted it?