Electoral body steers clear of new Presidential date as another deadline lapses
The Federal Electoral body FIEIT has said it will issue certificates Wednesday to MPs whose seats are not subject to any contest but shied from committing itself to any other presidential timelines even as it announced the November 30 deadline was no longer feasible.
FIEIT chairman Omar Abdulle told reporters in Mogadishu Tuesday the electoral body was focusing its energies on completing the elections of the Lower House which is now 100 MPs short of the full house. The Lower House consists of 275 members.
“We will issue certificates to MPs who have been cleared and whose seats are not under any contest or investigations,” Abdulle said.
Abdulle did not however issue any timelines for the presidential election but instead said the election of the House Speakers and their deputies will be conducted in December paving way for Presidential elections. He added his team will be meeting the Independent Electoral Dispute Resolution Mechanism Tuesday to deliberate on issues relating to the elections.
The November 30 deadline follows the October 30 one which the polls team had earlier noted it was not possible to achieve and that it needed more time to prepare.
Possible timelines
UN Special envoy for Somalia Michael Keating said Friday presidential elections would most likely be held mid-December noting the November 30 deadline was no longer within reach. “The latest determination was that the president would be elected 30th of November. Well that is three days away; that’s not gonna happen,” said Keating adding “My best guess is that it will happen by the 15th of December,” Keating said in an interview with BBC.
All states save for Somaliland have finished Upper House elections adding up to 43 senators short of the 11 from the breakaway region. Somaliland is also yet to start Lower House elections but the FIEIT chair said they had so far cleared lists for 37 MPs out of the total 46.
The postponement of the election adds to a third similar development which has raised questions among analysts as to whether the country will have a new country this year. President Hassan Sheikh’s constitutional term ended in September 10 with two deadlines passing unmet.
Sports Minister
The FIEIT is yet to issue its verdict on the seat contested by Youth and Sports Minister Mohamed Hassan Nur which was suspended two weeks ago following gun violence in a polling centre in Jowhar. A seat involving the State Minister for Finance Abdullahi Mohamed Nur was dismissed by the electoral body this past week following failure to adhere to the 30% rule for women representation. The polls team said it did not recognise results which declared the MP winner of the seat from the Agoonyare sub clan.
The Puntland State Indirect Electoral Implementation Team, SIEIT is also yet to announce the resumption of elections in the northern state after it stopped last week warning it was facing a cash crunch.