Somalia’s cabinet on Thursday endorsed legislation to allow a one-person-one-vote system for elections for the first time in more than half a century in the troubled Horn of Africa nation.

The law aims to replace a complex clan-based indirect voting system that has been in place since 1969, when the dictator Siad Barre seized power.

“The national elections law will direct the country to (hold) one-person-one vote elections,” Somali government spokesman Farhan Jimale said at a press briefing.

The legislation “will give every Somali citizen the constitutional right to vote for a leader of their choice,” he said.

However, it will have to go to parliament for approval before it can be officially signed into law by President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud.

In May 2023, the semi-autonomous state of Puntland held local polls by direct ballot, but rolled back on plans to use the system again for local and regional leadership elections in January this year.

Direct voting has also been held in Puntland’s neighbour Somaliland, which declared independence in 1991 but has never been recognised internationally.

Somalia is struggling to emerge from decades of conflict and chaos, battling a bloody Islamist insurgency and frequent natural disasters.