Hashi seeks UN, AU intervention in row over Somaliland poll committee

GOOBJOOG NEWS|MOGADISHU:   Senate speaker Abdi Hashi has sought the intervention of the international community to pressure President Mohamed Farmaajo against the appointment of an election committee for Somaliland reinforcing earlier calls by opposition parties.

In a letter addressed to the UN and AU heads in Somalia, Hashi said the President had unilaterally appointed the Somaliland Elections Committee contrary to earlier agreements including the 2016 elections deal which mandated each region to appoint its own committee.

“The President and his team who are running for office have appointed my constituency election committee, thus the president and his team have become judge and jury,” Hashi said in a letter also copied to western diplomatic missions in the country.

GERRYMANDERING

In his contention, Hashi who has for some time now been at loggerheads with Villa Somalia accuses the President, Prime Minister Mohamed Roble and intelligence head Fahad Yasin of ‘gerrymandering the process to select supporters to represent the North in the next parliament.’

Hashi’s remarks follow similar sentiments by 12 president candidates and opposition political parties last week protesting the move by Villa Somalia to arrogate itself the responsibility to appoint the committee which will be responsible for managing the election of Somaliland lawmakers.

The presidential candidates who include two former presidents and immediate former prime minister Hassan Khaire threatened to pull out from the race. Farmaajo has also been accused of appointing cronies and civil servants to the Federal Indirect Elections Committee.

According to the 2016 poll deal and agreements reached into by the country’s leadership in Dhusamareb in September, each region including Somaliland appoints its own elections committee.

The Upper House speaker expressed ‘worry that the rigged and corrupt process to select northern regions MPs will have catastrophic consequences for the Somali people’.

He called on the international community to pressure the president and his team to withdraw the appointments.