NLF issued permits to elders outside 135 list- Federal Electoral body

The National Leadership Forum has issued permits to elders who were not in the 2012 list to participate in the selection of delegates for the 2016 polls despite endorsing the same list in a communiqué in June, the Federal electoral body has said.

Warning the interference has and will adversely affect the upcoming polls, the Federal Indirect Electoral Implementation Team FIEIT called on the NLF which is meeting in Mogadishu to stick to the initial list of the 135 elders to ensure a unified election.

“FIEIT has learnt there are traditional elders not in the 2012 list of 135 elders who were issued permits by the NLF to select delegates. This is already causing confusion and confrontation and some clans have raised complaints,” said NLF in a letter exclusively seen by Goobjoog News.

The NLF must be careful not to alter the list of 135 elders, FIEIT warned.

In what is likely to generate debate the more, the FIEIT noted that it had realized some of the elders who participated in the 2012 selection of MPs were not bona fide members of clans they claimed to represent.

It is not however clear if the NLF will consider re-looking at the list, a development which is likely to unravel the electoral process even as the process hits the home stretch. Though the role of the traditional elders does not directly involve the election of the Lower House members, they still hold significant sway through the selection of the actual voters.

The concerns by the FIEIT follow similar issued raised by the UN this past week. In a letter addressed to the NLF, UN Special envoy Michael Keating warned the NLF against revisiting the electoral option or interfering with the list of elders.

“International partners therefore urge you to refrain from making any further changes to the list that will raise questions as to the rationale for such late modification and open the door to more requests,” Keating said.

The Federal electoral body also recommended to NLF that the elders should only select delegates from where they hail from and leave the rest to acting elders who should be appointed jointly by elders, the local administrations and the State level electoral body.

The proposal, FIEIT says is informed by the understanding that some elders whose sub clans live in different zones do not want to delegate responsibility to other elders in acting capacity.

Elders who fail or decline to participate in the selection of delegates will be replaced by a team of five elders who will be appointed jointly by FIEIT, local administration and sub clan elders, the Omar Abdulle led electoral body said.

NLF is expected to wrap up talks today or tomorrow paving way for elections which will start later this month with the election of members of the Lower House.