During the
civilian administration which existed prior to the
seizure of power by the
Supreme Revolutionary Council (SRC) in 1969, there were a number of local
political parties. Most notable of these early institutions was the
Somali Youth League, the nation's first political organization. Upon assuming office, the SRC (led by
Siad Barre)
outlawed all extant political parties, and established the
Somali Revolutionary Socialist Party to advocate a form of
scientific socialism inspired by 1960s
Soviet Union. Following the
outbreak of the
civil war in 1991 that saw the ouster of the Barre regime, many of the few remaining political parties gave way to autonomous or semi-autonomous regional states, or fragmented into feuding militia groups. After several unsuccessful national reconciliation efforts, a
Transitional Federal Government (TFG) was formed in 2000 with a five-year mandate leading toward the establishment of a new constitution and a transition to a representative government. The
Federal Government of Somalia was established on August 20, 2012, concurrent with the end of the TFG's interim mandate. It represents the first permanent central government in the country since the start of the civil war. On 29 May 2017, the Somali Political Parties
Registration Office was established in
Mogadishu. The office's job is to bring the country to the party system and remove it from the current 4.5 clan power-sharing system. On 3 December 2017, the
Independent Electoral Commission began registering political parties in Somalia for the first time in 50 years. ==Parties==