The regime manipulated vote counting to steal parliamentary seats from the opposition.

Evidence

In Garowe, the DAP representative was taken away by the police and jailed, and ballots were counted without any representative from the DAP. The regional judge confirmed that the DAP won, but the central election office in Mogadishu gave the two parliamentary seats to the SYL. In Galkayo, Election Day ended peacefully, but the regime was eager to steal the two seats. Earlier in the day, they sent a special police plane carrying Yassin’s aide to oversee the count. At the end of the day all boxes containing ballots were brought to the district headquarters, and the administrator claimed that it was too late in the day to count the votes and ordered that the ballot boxes be locked in storage until the morning. Once the public became aware of this decision a large contingent of Hussen’s followers came to the center and told the authorities that they would keep watch during the night. When the counting was done the following day the DAP came in first and the SYL second. — Abdi Ismail Samatar, Africa’s First Democrats, 1022

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s interest in Somali democratic history under Sharmarkee/Egal corruption and extends the narrative of the 1969 election rigging.