Djiboutian parliamentary election, 2008
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All 65 seats to the National Assembly |
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31.36%A parliamentary election was held in Djibouti on 8 February 2008. There were 65 candidates running for the 65 seats in the National Assembly, with all of the candidates coming from the ruling coalition, the Union for the Presidential Majority (UMP). The opposition boycotted the election, and the UMP won all 65 seats.
In boycotting the election, the opposition complained that the electoral system guaranteed victory for the UMP; in the previous January 2003 parliamentary election, the UMP won all 65 seats even though the opposition won 38% of the vote. The opposition unsuccessfully demanded that proportional representation be introduced. Ismael Guedi Hared, a leader of the opposition Union for a Democratic Alternative, said that the country effectively had a one-party system, that "none of the democratic rules [were] respected", and that the government was unwilling to accept proportional representation because it was fearful of discontent.
In a decree on 26 December 2007, President Ismail Omar Guelleh set the election date for 8 February 2008. Subsequently, in a presidential decree on 6 January 2008, campaigning was scheduled to begin at midnight on 25 January and run until midnight on 6 February.
The UMP filed its list of candidates at the Interior Ministry on 10 January 2003. More than a third of its candidates were new, and nine of its candidates (14% of the total) were women. In addition to the main governing party, the People's Rally for Progress (RPP), the UMP coalition included the National Democratic Party (PND), the moderate faction of the Front for the Restoration of Unity and Democracy (FRUD), the People's Social Democratic Party (PSD), and the Union of Reform Partisans (UPR). Prime Minister Dileita Mohamed Dileita headed the UMP list. According to Dileita, the government's refusal to introduce proportional representation was due to the need to preserve "the tribal balance", pointing to chaotic conditions of neighboring Somalia as an example to avoid. He did, however, say that it might be necessary to consider introducing proportional representation at some future time.
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