Prime Minister urges parliament to endorse the 2016 electoral option

Prime Minister Abdirashid Sharmarke today tabled the 2016 electoral option to the Federal parliament and called on the House to adopt it to pave way for the polls.

The PM said the electoral option was arrived at following wide consultations involving the federal parliament, regional administrations and the wider public.

He urged the Members of the Parliament to endorse the formula in order to roll out the remaining aspects of the electoral process in readiness for the polls in July, August and September.

“I appeal to this House , considering the current state of the country and due the short time remaining and in view of the work that needs to be done – to endorse the tabled Electoral Process which has been achieved through common accord and consensus between the Federal Government and the Regional Governments of Somalia,” said the Prime Minister.

The proposals agreed to by the National Leadership Forum early April indicate the election of the Upper House will be done by the Federal State Assemblies while that of the Lower House will be elected through the 4.5 clan based system.

A total of 13,750 delegates will participate in the election of the members of the Lower House. This is based on the understanding that each MP will be elected by 50 delegates. The Lower House is made up of 275 members.

The NLF, which is made up of the president, prime minister, speaker of parliament and heads of regional administrations also agreed to form a two tier electoral structure to over see the polls. The structures are the Federal Electoral Implementation Team, FEIT and a State-Level Electoral Implementation Team SEIT.

The FEIT will be composed of 17 Members where Five (5) members will be appointed by the Federal Government and two (2) members appointed by each of existing/emerging Member States. On the other hand, SEIT will comprise of 11 members; Eight (8) members appointed by the Federal Member State and three (3) appointed by the Federal Government.

The speaker of parliament, Mohamed Sheikh Osman Jawari called on the Parliamentarians to acquaint themselves with the proposals in readiness for debate which is expected to start Sunday.

Elections for the Upper House will be conducted in July while that of the Lower House will be done in August. Both Houses will thereafter elect the president in September.