New deal breathes life into Somalia’s election process

Significance

The deal opens a consensual path to elections after the parties agreed on steps to address disputes that have delayed polls since last December.

Impacts

• Regional authorities will need to ramp up preparations to address the challenges posed by al-Shabaab, COVID-19 and seasonal flooding.
• Divisive polls will make the search for the political consensus to address key state-building tasks in the post-poll period challenging.
• Somaliland leaders will use the comparison with their just-concluded peaceful, democratic vote to push their independence claims.