Mogadishu Votes Again: A City Once Written Off Reclaims the Ballot

 

History does not always arrive with fanfare. Sometimes it arrives quietly — in ink-stained fingers, folded ballot papers, and ordinary people queueing under the watchful eye of history.

Today, Mogadishu voted.

For the first time since Somalia’s early independence years, residents of the capital city cast ballots to choose their local councillors — an act so normal in most parts of the world that it barely registers as news, yet so extraordinary in Somalia that it carries the emotional weight of generations.

This was not merely an election.
It was a rebuttal — to war, to exile, to cynicism, and to the long-standing assumption that Mogadishu could never govern itself through the consent of its people.

A City Shattered — and Surviving

To understand the significance of today, one must understand what Mogadishu has endured.

After independence in 1960, Somalia experienced a brief but meaningful democratic period. Municipal governance existed. Citizens voted. Political parties competed. Mogadishu was a functioning capital of a hopeful new republic.

That chapter closed abruptly in 1969, when a military coup dismantled civilian rule. What followed were decades of authoritarianism, state collapse, civil war, and fragmentation.

From 1991 onwards, Mogadishu became the most violent symbol of a stateless nation. Warlords carved the city into armed enclaves. Neighbourhoods became islands separated by invisible frontlines. Mortars replaced municipal services. Loyalty to guns mattered more than the ballot.

Later came new layers of trauma:

• clan wars
• extremist violence
• suicide bombings
• assassinations
• foreign military interventions
• and endless “transitional” arrangements that never quite transitioned

For millions of Somalis — myself included — Mogadishu became something we left behind physically, but never emotionally. A city we loved from afar, often fearing it more than remembering it.

The Long Argument Against Mogadishu

For years, the prevailing wisdom — both inside and outside Somalia — was blunt:

Mogadishu is too broken to vote.

International observers doubted security. Opposition groups doubted neutrality. Some federal member states doubted the authority of the capital altogether. Analysts argued that local democracy was premature, risky, or symbolic at best.

More recently, pessimism deepened:

• strained relations between the federal government and some federal states
• persistent Al-Shabaab threats
• declining international aid
• donor fatigue
• and a global shift away from state-building experiments

Somalia, we were told again, was an unfinished project.

And yet — today happened anyway.

The Vote That Many Said Would Never Happen

Despite the scepticism, Mogadishu held direct local elections.

Residents voted for their district-level representatives, marking the first time in decades that local authority in the capital derived — even partially — from popular consent rather than appointment.

This matters profoundly.

Local government is not abstract ideology. It is rubbish collection, street lighting, dispute resolution, planning, accountability. It is where the state meets daily life.

For Mogadishu, a city long governed by force, fear, or decree, this vote reintroduces a forgotten idea: representation.

Leadership, Imperfect but Historic

It would be dishonest to portray Somalia’s current leadership as flawless. No serious analyst would.

Yet history does not demand perfection; it records moments.

Under President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and his administration, the political decision was made to attempt what many advised against. The risks were real. Failure would have been public.

But success — even partial — changes the political trajectory.

This election will be debated, criticised, audited, and scrutinised. As it should be. Democracy does not need applause; it needs accountability.

Still, decades from now, footnotes will note this date.

The Diaspora Watches, and Feels It Deeply

For Somalis in London, Minneapolis, Toronto, Nairobi, Dubai — today carried a quiet ache.

We left as children. As refugees. As students. As survivors.

We were told Somalia was something to move on from.

And yet, many of us watched Mogadishu vote and felt something unexpected: recognition.

This was not nostalgia. It was validation — that exile did not erase belonging, and that the country we were forced to leave continues, slowly, painfully, to re-assemble itself.

Why This Election Matters Beyond Mogadishu?

This vote sends signals:

• To armed groups: governance can return without them
• To sceptics: the capital is not permanently ungovernable
• To federal states: decentralisation can include citizens, not just elites
• To donors: Somalis are not passive recipients of aid, but political actors

Most importantly, it sends a message to Somalis themselves:
History is not finished with you.

Not the End — But the Beginning of Normality

No one should romanticise today.

One election does not erase corruption, insecurity, poverty, or political division. Mogadishu’s road remains long and uneven.

But normality begins with small acts done publicly and lawfully.

Voting is one of them.

On 25 December 2025, Mogadishu did something revolutionary by global standards precisely because it was ordinary.

It voted.

And in doing so, a city once written off reminded the world — and itself — that sovereignty does not begin with declarations or donors, but with people marking a choice.

History will remember that.

Abdiaziz Arab

Political Analyst