Somali President’s stay in office extended further as poll teams push vote to Nov 30

President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud will have another 30 days stay at Villa Somalia on top of the 50 days already added to his term thanks to the new electoral timelines released by the Federal and State level electoral teams Monday.

After a three day meeting in Mogadishu which started on the eve of the elections of the Lower House members as earlier planned, the teams announced a new president would be elected November 30 while members of the Lower House will be elected between October 23 and November 10.

Heads of regional administrations will be expected to submit list of members elected for the Upper House by the regional assemblies and other formations in cases where the assemblies do not exist latest October 5.

Further, the poll bodies called on clan elders to ensure the list of the delegates who will elect the members of the Lower House are submitted by October 10. Subsequently, Speakers of both Houses of Parliament will be elected November 23 paving for Presidential elections November 30.

In a statement Monday, the Federal Indirect Electoral Implementation Team (FIEIT and the State Indirect Electoral Implementation Team (SIEIT) cited a number of challenges which necessitated the delays.

Budgetary constraints, lack of a functional dispute resolution committee, security and administrative challenges are some of the challenges the poll bodies cited as major concerns. The financing of the elections is split into 60% and 40% to be met by the international community and Somalia respectively.

They also raised concerns about failure by elders to submit lists of delegates.

In August, the FIEIT announced the elections of the President would be held October 30 while that of members of the Lower House would be conducted between September 24 and October 10. The Upper House ought to have been constituted by September 25 while the elections of the Speakers were slated for October 25.

The two teams noted that the dispute resolution committee will start operations by October 8, 2016.

Elections of the Hiiraan/Middle Shabelle region will be held in Mogadishu following a majority vote by elders representing the two regions, the polls body said.