Elders in Mogadishu oppose the proposed election plan

Mogadishu’s Clan elders have strongly opposed the country’s election model, saying the city’s population which is estimated to be 3.5 million will get nothing.

Mohamed Hassan Haad, a local elder who spoke to Goobjoog News said the federal government did not give Mogadishu’s rights in Somalia’s clan-based power-sharing model.

“We know that Somali government was based on 4.5 clan power sharing, the members of the upper house should be on this system because this proposed electoral model does not give people Mogadishu their share in the house”

The elders’ remark come as a UN Security Council delegation visited Somalia Thursday to insist August elections proceed as planned, warning that political wrangling could derail a process intended to signal the country’s growing stability.

With Somalia’s parliament so far failing to back the government’s proposed election plan, the 16-person Security Council team urged an end to the deadlock.

The current clan-based formula, still in place for choosing the next president and parliament in August, tentatively would be scrapped and replaced by a one-person, one-vote system for the 2020 elections.