HLPF to open in Mogadishu a week after the president used executive power to pass electoral process

A crucial High-Level Partnership Forum on political and constitutionally contentious issues of the electoral process is expected to kick off in Mogadishu on Sunday barely a week after President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud declared the 2016 electoral option law by invoking executive powers.

Hundreds of security forces were deployed in the main streets of the capital in a bid to beef up the security.

Leaders of Galmudug, South-west, Jubbaland and Puntland, along the president and prime minister of the federal government are expected to attend the forum.

According to reliable sources, the leaders will discuss the state of Mogadishu and other points relating to the upcoming election.

In April this year, the leaders agreed ‘guiding principles’ of the election and the process that facilitate the transfer of power when the government’s mandate expires in 2016.

The president used an executive order and called for an election in Somalia, bypassing the parliament which delayed the debate over the matter.

In presidential decree issued on 22nd this month, the president said it was imperative the electoral model be adopted into law to tame the escalation of rifts and protect the interests of the country

“Safeguarding the interests of all stakeholders, civil society, parliament and the leaders of the High-Level Partnership Forum and safeguarding what the international community is expecting from us, we issued this presidential decree and it will take effect from today,” the president said Sunday morning.

According to Somalia’s Provisional Federal Constitution, adopted in 2012, the mandates of the Somali Federal Parliament and of the government would come to an end in August and September 2016, respectively.