International community lauds Somali President’s move to legalise electoral model

The international community has praised the declaration into law of the 2016 electoral model by President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud.

In a joint statement, the UN, AU, EU, regional authority, IGAD among other international partners in Somalia said the decree will enable the technical preparation and implementation of the electoral process without further delay.

They further reiterated their earlier call that there should be no extension of the constitutionally mandated term limits of the legislature and the executive.

“Somalia’s international partners welcome and fully support the step that President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and the Federal Government have taken,” said the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General (SRSG) for Somalia, Michael Keating.

“We all would have preferred a different scenario for the endorsement of the model. But intense engagement among politicians, especially in the last few weeks, made it evident that the Federal Parliament would have had great difficulty in agreeing on and legalizing the model.”

President Sunday declared he was by passing parliament to legalise the 2016 electoral model for the sake of the country’s interest.

The international community noted the President and his government had acted to preserve timelines that will allow technical preparation and implementation of the electoral process, which were at serious risk. The challenge now is to prepare and implement the elections. We call on all Somali stakeholders to now work constructively to that end,” the partners said.

They observed there still exist many technical and procedural issues to b resolves including the 30% quota for women in both houses of parliament and the formation of dispute resolution mechanism. . International partners stressed their commitment to support a timely, transparent and inclusive electoral process.

“This decree is a decisive move in the right direction. Political progress is critical to the millions of Somalis who want stability and greater accountability. It is also essential for both regional and international peace and security,” SRSG Keating stressed.