FIEIT suspends the parliamentary seat of Jidle subclan, assigns committee to probe the dispute

Somalia’s Federal electoral body FIEIT said on Tuesday that it has decided to delay the decision of the parliamentary seat of Jidle subclan following a brief gun battle outside the voting hall between the security guards of the Minister for Youth and Sports Mohamed Abdullah Hussein Nuh and guards loyal to his opponent, Ahmed Sheikh Noor on 18th of this month in Jowhar.

In a statement, the body said that joint committee consisting members from FIET, conflict resolution commission and officials from HirShabelle regional state will be assigned to probe the matter.

“Federal Indirect Electoral Implementation Team, FIEIT decided to delay the parliamentary seat of Jidle subclan election and assigned a joint committee to investigate the incident,” FIEIT said.

However, the electoral implementing body allowed resumption of elections for other seats in the state.

In addition, the situation was also intervened by the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General (SRSG) for Somalia Michael Keating and the Special Representative of the AU Commission Chairperson (SRCC) Ambassador Francisco Caetano Madeira.

So far HirShabelle state has elected 13 MPs out of an allocation of 37 seats in the federal parliament’s House of the People. The state electoral implementing body, SIEIT said they hope to conclude the Lower House elections in the next one week.