Djibouti’s Mock Presidential Elections

By Abdirahman Waberi

President George W. Bush and President Ismail Omar Guelleh of Djibouti greet the press during a meeting in the Oval Office Jan. 21, 2003. White House photo by Paul Morse.

Mimic elections after mimic elections in Djibouti’s presidential contests followed by last month’s awkwardly uncontested presidential elections, which was strikingly boycotted by all opposition parties in order to shed light on what they call a corrupt pattern of election rigging by the current president by him insisting early on to being in control of every step of the process (through his government) and by even refusing to implement an independent election committee. Nevertheless, President Ismail Omar Guelleh is in the middle of a victory tour in the US this week while reportedly squashing political challengers at home.  A victory tour that followed last few weeks self-indulging celebrations and inauguration parties according to local reports.

Political parties continue to make accusations of arrogant and heavy-handed tactics including illegal imprisonments of political dissidents and even torture against president Guelleh’s regime to stir a populist revolt against 28 years of close relative domination of the Djibouti presidency between President Guelleh and his predecessor and uncle President Hassan Gulled Abtidon through their People's Progress Assembly or RPP. "Over the past two elections, reports indicate that the RPP government ignored Election Rules and the basic standards of ballot-vote fairness with an impunity that is unprecedented in the history of Djibouti,"

Djibouti at a glance:, Still one of the poorest countries in the face of the earth, the US led Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa base established in Djibouti would not come at a better time when Guelleh’s regime was feeling the economic heat as France’s fusion of $100 million a year was disappearing and relationship was deteriorating amid accusations of president Guelleh’s involvement of the killing of a French Judge in Djibouti in the nineties when he was the security chief. Arab countries (who are Djibouti’s eternal donors) were not either exited to have a member nation that has one of the most liberal social structure by being one of the few countries in the world where gambling and prostitution is legal and is in the open, according to many reports including the following report by Rosie DiManno of the Toronto Star http://www.somaliawatch.org/archivejuly/000814201.htm It is well known fact that a sexually transmitted disease clinic specialized in the treatment of prostitutes and their customers has been established in Djibouti since 1963 by the French.  Despite AIDS epidemic in Sub-Saharan Africa the practice of French established outpost with an aim to fulfill strategic military need ONLY is being carried out during statehood.

Population: 460,700 Population Growth Rate: 2.6% Birth Rate: 40.66 births/1,000 population Life Expectancy: total population: 51.21 years; male: 49.37 years; female: 53.1 years Literacy Rate: total population: 46.2%; male: 60.3%; female: 32.7% Net Migration Rate: 0 migrants/1,000 population Unemployment Rate: 50% Gross Domestic Product per Capita: US$1,300 Religions: Muslim 94%, Christian 6% Languages: French (official), Arabic (official), Somali, Afar Ethnic Groups: Somali 60%; Afar 35%; French, Arab, Ethiopian, and Italian 5% Capital: Djibouti

Democratization was the agenda during the establishment of the first assembly during the independence negotiation in 1977 from the French. But the road to realization of true democracy was persistently getting bumpier and bumpier until it got to last April’s presidential elections embarrassment that turned out to has become one man show. The means by which a nation may democratize its political processes are often threefold. The first is by the restriction of the powers of politicians; the second by ensuring that the ordinary elector has meaningful access to the political process and the third by the removal of barriers to the use of public instruments such as media and public utilities. According to recent Africa Intelligence Reports none is the case in Djibouti and it is still anything but democratic.. “Once the sanctity of the voting process is in question then that nation is clearly tampering with the future of its democracy''

Democracy by definition requires the electorate to know what their elected representatives and their public servants are doing on their behalf. With very few exceptions, such as some military data, information in the public sphere could be made available to the electorate without compromising the interests of the country. Transparency and accountability has completely been dwindled to inferior principals in the last 15 years according to these reports while privileged members of the RPP got richer and fatter in their own words.

The opposition parties who have few weapons besides rhetoric accusations of abuse of power and vicious tactics designed to suppress dissent against the current president continue to charge him that he controls directly or indirectly all institutions and, described him to have become one of the richest people in the horn of Africa region as a forthcoming report is documenting "devastating details of the profound abuse of power that characterizes his regime after 6 years in the reign."  According to these dissents.

"While this current US administration has spoken strongly about promoting democracy around the world, tyrant rulers are getting nervous every where. Even slowly moving regimes like Ethiopia (although the process is challengingly hideous) are making progress towards democratization practices. Smaller, impoverished and not even yet recognized country in the region “The Republic of Somaliland” on the verge of becoming one has been noted to have achieved remarkable progress in democratization without getting the support it deserves from the free world, and is way ahead in practicing freedoms then other nations in the region. In the meantime, the Republic of Djibouti’s political dissents are vehemently charging their government of undermining democracy at home and therefore working feverishly to expose an embarrassingly civilian dictatorship with broken promises and political wrong doings that has become the standard operating procedure of Guelleh’s administration. Their report goes on to say that they hope the U S government does not look the other way for the sake of the war of terror. Because tyranny itself is some form terror.

Abdirahman Waberi
E-mail: Awaberi44@aol.com