Residents of the Banadir region in Somalia are set to make history in participating in a one-person-one-vote system for the first time in nearly 60 years for the local council elections happening on Thursday. With the majority of aspirants being predominantly the youth.

For the first time in Somalia’s history, the candidate pool has been dominated by young youth who are eager to take charge of the political affairs of Somalia. Of the 1,604 candidates contesting for the local seats, 69% are youths between the ages of 20 and 35.
Women make up 23%, showing 361 candidates were women, which has shown a significant number of women turning up for leadership positions in Somalia in a field that has been dominated by males for decades.

Over 20 political associations are participating in the polls, making a historic transition from the previous 4.5-clan system of elections.

Data releases by the National Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission of Somalia show a total of 923,220 voters were registered in the Banadir region, and upon verification, 918,889 were approved as valid voters, while 4,330 were identified as invalid voters and duplicates.

A total of 503,919 people who collected their physical voters’ cards are eligible to cast their votes in 523 polling stations distributed across the 16 districts.