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We are confident elections will be concluded in time-Somali polls body

Storyline:National News
nafisa
FIEIT official Nafisa Santur said they are confident the elections will be held in time with more than 75% of the delegates lists having been cleared by the polls body. Photo: Amisom

The Federal electoral body FIEIT has expressed confidence it will meet the polls timelines noting that over 75% of delegates lists for the Upper House have been processed as talks by Somaliland electoral college point to their participation in the elections counter to earlier reports the break-away region might boycott.

FIEIT official Nafisa Santur told Goobjoog News Monday the polls body had managed to deal with some of the key challenges including cleaning up the delegate’s lists. “Almost all the regions have submitted their delegate’s lists. We are remaining with Somaliland lists for both the Upper and Lower House,” said Santur.

She noted remaining issues will be dealt with going forward and that the Independent Dispute Resolution Committee is already in place to handle any other emerging concerns.

A member of Somaliland State Indirect Electoral Team, SIEIT told Goobjoog News Sunday talks were progressing well despite concerns the region might not participate in the elections. “The Constitution provides for a 54 member chamber, therefore it would not be possible to have a House less by 11 members,” the official who did not want to be named said.

Somaliland and Puntland were each allocated 11 seats for the Senate while the remaining regions were each given 8 seats. All the regions states safe for Somaliland have concluded their senatorial elections.

It is not however clear if Somaliland government will officially agree to the elections especially for the Upper House. Given its quest for self- determination, Somaliland government would find itself in an awkward situation if it pursued representation in the Mogadishu based Federal Parliament,” a political analyst who requested anonymity told Goobjoog News.

Orientation for the delegates is ongoing and candidates will prosecute their case before them shortly before ballots open, said Santur. For logistical purposes and efficiency, the process will be done in batches especially for regions such as South West which have large numbers of delegates,” said Santur.

Clans aggregated in South West state take the lion share of MPs (69) in the Federal Parliament. This means a total of 3,519 delegates will participate in the exercise, each MP being elected by 51 delegates.

According to the FIEIT elections for the Lower House run from October 23 through to November 10.