Presidential candidates to pitch case before Parliament ahead of February 8 poll

All the 24 presidential candidates will prosecute their case before both houses of parliament before proceeding to the poll on February 8.

The event will run from February 2 to 5th giving the hopefuls a chance to canvas for votes in the 329 member chamber. A winning candidate will require two thirds of the votes in the first round which amounts to 219 votes.

Somalia’s presidential election committee (PEC) has allotted eight presidential candidates to articulate their speeches in front of Parliament each day within the three days.

The first batch of presidential hopefuls’ speeches will start on the 2nd of February and conclude on the fifth.

On Tuesday, the scheduled public debate failed to take place after the opposition candidate boycotted the event after what they termed as bias in transmission and selection of members of the public who would participate. The PEC selected the national broadcaster SNTV and Radio Mogadishu to air the debate dropping proposals by the candidates to include the private media. They also questioned what they said was pre-selected number of participants without their consultation.