Parliamentary elections were held in

Djibouti Djibouti, officially the Republic of Djibouti, is a country in the Horn of Africa, bordered by Somalia to the south, Ethiopia to the southwest, Eritrea in the north, and the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden to the east. The country has an area ...

on 10 January 2003 to elect the

National Assembly of Djibouti The National Assembly, formerly known as the Chamber of Deputies, is the unicameral parliament of the Republic of Djibouti. Established under Title V of the 1992 Constitution, it consists of 65 members who are elected by direct and secret univ ...

. The ruling coalition of

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

Ismail Omar Guelleh In the biblical Book of Genesis, Ishmael (; ; ; ) is the first son of Abraham. His mother was Hagar, the handmaiden of Abraham's wife Sarah. He died at the age of 137. Traditionally, he is seen as the ancestor of the Arabs. Within Islam, Ishm ...

won all 65 seats in the election, defeating an opposition coalition. The elections were the first in which women were elected to parliament after a new law was passed requiring a minimum of 10% male or female candidates in candidate lists.

Background

After being a

one-party state A one-party state, single-party state, one-party system or single-party system is a governance structure in which only a single political party controls the ruling system. In a one-party state, all opposition parties are either outlawed or en ...

from 1977 to 1992, limited opposition was allowed in the previous two parliamentary elections. However, the

1997 elections The following elections occurred in the year 1997. Africa * 1997 Algerian legislative election * 1997 Burkinabé parliamentary election * 1997 Cameroonian parliamentary election * 1997 Cameroonian presidential election * 1997 Chadian parliamenta ...

still saw supporters of President Guelleh win every seat in Parliament. The situation was changed for the 2003 elections, with a law that had previously restricted the number of political parties to four expiring, and full

multi-party democracy In political science, a multi-party system is a political system where more than two meaningfully-distinct political parties regularly run for office and win elections. Multi-party systems tend to be more common in countries using proportional r ...

was allowed.

Electoral system

Members of the National Assembly were elected from five constituencies with different numbers of seats. In each constituency, the party or coalition with the most votes won all of the seats in the constituency.

Campaign

The elections were contested between two coalitions. The ruling Union for a Presidential Majority led by

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

Dileita Mohamed Dileita Dileita Mohamed Dileita (, ; born 12 March 1959''Profiles of People in Power: The World's Government Leaders'' (2003), page 142–143.People's Rally for Progress The People's Rally for Progress (; , RPP) is a political party in Djibouti. It has dominated politics in the country since 1979, initially under the rule of President Hassan Gouled Aptidon. Today it is led by President Ismaïl Omar Guelleh and is ...

, Front for Restoration of Unity and Democracy, National Democratic Party and the Social Democratic People's Party. They were opposed by the Union for a Democratic Alternative (UAD) coalition led by a former Prime Minister

Ahmed Dini Ahmed Ahmed Dini Ahmed (, ; 1932 – 12 September 2004) was a Djiboutian politician who served as the second Prime Minister of Djibouti. He was trained as a health technician and entered the political realm at age 26. He served as Vice-president ...

. The UAD consisted of the

Republican Alliance for Democracy The Republican Alliance for Democracy () () is an opposition political party in Djibouti, founded by Ahmed Dini Ahmed. In the parliamentary election held on 10 January 2003, the party was part of the Union for a Democratic Change (''Union pour l ...

Movement for Democratic Renewal and Development Movement may refer to: Generic uses * Movement (clockwork), the internal mechanism of a timepiece * Movement (sign language), a hand movement when signing * Motion, commonly referred to as movement * Movement (music), a division of a larger co ...

, Djibouti Party for Development and the

Djibouti Union for Democracy and Justice Djibouti, officially the Republic of Djibouti, is a country in the Horn of Africa, bordered by Somalia to the south, Ethiopia to the southwest, Eritrea in the north, and the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden to the east. The country has an area ...

. Five of the parties in these coalitions were new, having been formed after the law restricting the number of political parties had expired. The opposition alliance was hurt by the decision of Aden Robleh Awaleh and his National Democratic Party to move from the opposition to being a member of the government coalition. Government supporters attacked the opposition leader

for his previous role as a leader of the

Front for the Restoration of Unity and Democracy The Front for the Restoration of Unity and Democracy (, FRUD; ) is a political party in Djibouti. It is aligned with the interests of the Afar people who live in the country, although it has supporters residing outside of Djibouti. History Upr ...

during the

Djiboutian Civil War The Djiboutian Civil War (also known as the First Afar insurgency) was a conflict in Djibouti, lasting from 1991 to 1994 and resulting in thousands of fatalities. The uneven power sharing between the Issas and the Afars led to the Civil War tha ...

in the early 1990s. The Union for the Presidential Majority called for voters to support them so they could continue to bring

economic development In economics, economic development (or economic and social development) is the process by which the economic well-being and quality of life of a nation, region, local community, or an individual are improved according to targeted goals and object ...

to Djibouti and to reduce

poverty Poverty is a state or condition in which an individual lacks the financial resources and essentials for a basic standard of living. Poverty can have diverse Biophysical environmen ...

and

unemployment Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is the proportion of people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for work du ...

. Meanwhile, the opposition criticised the government's record, accusing it of numerous failures and called on voters to bring political change to Djibouti.

Results

The results saw the Union for the Presidential Majority win all of the seats in the Djibouti parliament after topping the vote in all five constituencies. The opposition came closest to winning seats in the capital

Djibouti city Djibouti (also called Djibouti City and Jibuti in early Western texts) is the capital city of the Djibouti, Republic of Djibouti. It is located in the coastal Djibouti Region on the Gulf of Tadjoura. Djibouti has a population of around 780,000 ...

where they won just short of 45% of the vote. The election saw seven women – Hawa Ahmed Youssouf, Ismahan Abdi Douksieh, Hasna Hassan Ali, Mariam Ibrahim Farah, Kadidja Mohamed Ali, Hasna Mohamed Dato and Aïcha Mohamed Robleh – elected to parliament for the first time.Daher Ahmed Farah (2018
Savoir et pouvoir dans le contexte de Djibouti : des configurations éducatives entre constructions de savoir et relations de pouvoir
CNAM International

election monitor Election monitoring involves the observation of an election by one or more independent parties, typically from another country or from a non-governmental organization (NGO). The monitoring parties aim primarily to assess the conduct of an elect ...

s generally praised the election saying that "the electoral operations have been free from irregularities". However the opposition denounced the results saying that they were fraudulent and that there had been

ballot stuffing Electoral fraud, sometimes referred to as election manipulation, voter fraud, or vote rigging, involves illegal interference with the process of an election, either by increasing the vote share of a favored candidate, depressing the vote share o ...

, multiple voting and some voting cards had not been distributed. The opposition leader Dini said he would take their case to the

constitutional court A constitutional court is a high court that deals primarily with constitutional law. Its main authority is to rule on whether laws that are challenged are in fact unconstitutional, i.e. whether they conflict with constitutionally established ru ...

, but called on his supporters to not launch street protests.

References

{{Djiboutian elections Parliamentary elections in Djibouti

Parliamentary In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...