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.[1][2]
Background
After being a one-party state from 1977 to 1992, limited opposition was allowed in the previous two parliamentary elections. However, the 1997 elections 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 was allowed.[3]
Electoral system
Members of the National Assembly were elected from five constituencies with different numbers of seats.[4] In each constituency, the party or coalition with the most votes won all of the seats in the constituency.[4]
Five of the parties in these coalitions were new, having been formed after the law restricting the number of political parties had expired.[3] 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.[2] Government supporters attacked the opposition leader Ahmed Dini Ahmed for his previous role as a leader of the Front for the Restoration of Unity and Democracy during the Djiboutian Civil War in the early 1990s.[3] The Union for the Presidential Majority called for voters to support them so they could continue to bring economic development to Djibouti and to reduce poverty and unemployment.[1] Meanwhile, the opposition criticised the government's record, accusing it of numerous failures and called on voters to bring political change to Djibouti.[3][1]
International election monitors generally praised the election saying that "the electoral operations have been free from irregularities".[1] However the opposition denounced the results saying that they were fraudulent and that there had been ballot stuffing, multiple voting and some voting cards had not been distributed.[4] The opposition leader Dini said he would take their case to the constitutional court, but called on his supporters to not launch street protests.[1][2]
Member State of the Arab League
Africa portal 
Politics portal 
