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Parliamentary elections were held in Somalia on 26 March 1969. A total of 64 parties ran in the election, many of which had been formed shortly beforehand. [1] The result was a victory for the Somali Youth League (SYL), which won 73 of the 123 seats. In total, 27 parties won seats, but immediately after the elections, most of the MPs for the smaller parties joined the Somali Youth League. The SYL held 109 seats by the end of May, in addition to being in a coalition with the Somali National Congress. This, in turn, gave the SYL control of 120 of the 123 seats. [2]
This was to be the last election in Somalia prior to a coup d'état on 21 October, when officers of the far-left Supreme Revolutionary Council led by Siad Barre transformed Somalia into a single-party Marxist-Leninist state that would last until the fall of the regime in 1991. [3] [4] [5]
The electoral system used was a mixture of single-member plurality and party-list proportional representation. There were 48 electoral districts. In ten of them, only one member was elected, and thus the single-member plurality system was used. In the remaining districts, seats were distributed using party-list proportional representation and the Hare quota. The average number of members elected in a multi-member district was approximately three. [6]
Proportional representation (PR) refers to any type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to political divisions among voters. The essence of such systems is that all votes cast – or almost all votes cast – contribute to the result and are effectively used to help elect someone – not just a bare plurality or (exclusively) the majority – and that the system produces mixed, balanced representation reflecting how votes are cast.
Mohammed Siad Barre was a Somali military Officer, politician, and revolutionary who served as the Head of state of Somalia from 21 October 1969 to 26 January 1991.
First-past-the-post voting is an electoral system wherein voters cast a vote for a single candidate, and the candidate with the most votes wins the election. Analogous systems for multi-winner contests are known as plurality block voting or "block voting" systems; both FPTP and block voting are "plurality" systems in that the winner needs only a plurality of the votes and not an absolute majority. The term first-past-the-post is a metaphor from horse racing of the plurality-voted candidate winning such a race; the electoral system is formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts, and informally called choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting or score voting.
An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, electorate, or (election) precinct, is a subdivision of a larger state created to provide its population with representation in the larger state's legislative body. That body, or the state's constitution or a body established for that purpose, determines each district's boundaries and whether each will be represented by a single member or multiple members. Generally, only voters (constituents) who reside within the district are permitted to vote in an election held there. District representatives may be elected by a first-past-the-post system, a proportional representative system, or another voting method. They may be selected by a direct election under universal suffrage, an indirect election, or another form of suffrage.
Ali Mahdi Muhammad was a Somali entrepreneur and politician. He served as President of Somalia from 26 January 1991 to 27 August 1993. The Cairo Agreement in December 1997 designated Ali Mahdi as president once again, a position he held until being succeeded by Abdiqasim Salad in the year 2000.
The Somali Republic was the name given to the newly independent state of Somalia, following the unification of the Trust Territory of Somaliland and the State of Somaliland. A government was formed by Abdullahi Issa Mohamud and Muhammad Haji Ibrahim Egal and other members of the trusteeship and protectorate administrations, with Haji Bashir Ismail Yusuf as President of the Somali National Assembly and Aden Abdullah Osman Daar as President of the Somali Republic. On 22 July 1960, Daar appointed Abdirashid Ali Shermarke as Prime Minister. On 20 July 1961 and through a popular referendum, Somalia ratified a new constitution, which was first drafted in 1960. The new constitution was rejected by Somaliland.
The Somali Youth League, initially known as the Somali Youth Club (SYC), was the first political party in Somalia.
The National Security Service (NSS) was the primary intelligence agency of the Somali Democratic Republic from 1970 to 1990. The NSS was formed as the secret police under the government of Siad Barre in 1970, modelled after the KGB of the Soviet Union, and was formally dissolved in 1990 shortly before Barre's overthrow. In 2013, the Federal Government of Somalia re-established the NSS as the national intelligence service, renaming it the National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA).
The Hangash, an acronym standing for Defence Security Agency, was a notorious secret police unit of the Siad Barre regime in Somalia until his overthrow in 1991.
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Electoral districts go by different names depending on the country and the office being elected.
An electoral system or voting system is a set of rules that determine how elections and referendums are conducted and how their results are determined. Electoral systems are used in politics to elect governments, while non-political elections may take place in business, non-profit organisations and informal organisations. These rules govern all aspects of the voting process: when elections occur, who is allowed to vote, who can stand as a candidate, how ballots are marked and cast, how the ballots are counted, how votes translate into the election outcome, limits on campaign spending, and other factors that can affect the result. Political electoral systems are defined by constitutions and electoral laws, are typically conducted by election commissions, and can use multiple types of elections for different offices.
Osman Haji Mohamed, also known as Osman Baketti, was a Somali politician. He was a prominent figure in the government of the Trust Territory of Somalia and the succeeding civilian administration of independent Somalia.
The Provisional Constitution of the Federal Republic of Somalia is the supreme law of Somalia. It provides the legal foundation for the existence of the Federal Republic and source of legal authority. It sets out the rights and duties of its citizens, and defines the structure of government. The Provisional Constitution was adopted on August 1, 2012 by a National Constitutional Assembly in Mogadishu, Banaadir.
The following lists events that happened during 1986 in the Somali Democratic Republic.
The following lists events that happened during 1970 in Somalia.
The 1969 Somali coup d'état was the bloodless takeover of Somalia's government on 21 October 1969 by military officers of the Supreme Revolutionary Council led by Siad Barre. Somali troops supported by tanks under the command of Barre stormed Mogadishu and seized key government buildings and ordered the resignation of the country's leaders. The coup deposed President Sheikh Mukhtar Mohamed Hussein and Prime Minister Mohammad Egal and led to the twenty-one year long military rule by Barre and the imposition of an authoritarian government in Somalia until 1991.
Presidential elections were held in Somalia in 15 May 2022. The election was held indirectly and after the elections for the House of the People, which began on 1 November 2021 and ended on 13 April 2022.
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