More than 10,000 security personnel have been deployed in Somalia's capital Mogadishu, ahead of Thursday's local elections – the first direct polls in nearly 60 years.
Somalia launched voter registration in April for the first time in decades, as the country has been struggling to emerge from decades of conflict and chaos, battling a bloody Islamist insurgency and frequent natural disasters.
The local elections, postponed several times, are a step towards universal suffrage and an end to the complex clan-based indirect voting system that has been in place since 1969.
More than 1,600 candidates are running for 390 local seats in the southeastern Banadir region.
However, the polls are boycotting the election, accusing the federal government of imposing "unilateral election processes".
Nearly 400,000 people are registered to vote, according to the country's electoral body.
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Security is a concern.
"We have managed to secure the city," security minister Abdullahi Sheikh Ismail said in a statement.
Electoral Commission chairman Abdikarin Ahmed Hassan said all movement would be restricted on polling day, with voters being transported to polling stations by bus.
"The whole country will be shut down," Hassan said. "It is a great moment for the Somali people to see elections for the first [time in] nearly 60 years."
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Direct voting was abolished in the country after Siad Barre took power in 1969. Since the fall of his authoritarian government in 1991, the country's political system has revolved around a clan-based structure.
These local elections, using the one-person, one-vote model, have been postponed three times this year.
Somalia is expected to hold a presidential election in 2026, as President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud's term comes to an end.
That will be an indirect election, with members of parliament electing the head of state.
(with AFP)
