UN, foreign missions hail ‘historic’ elections in Puntland

GOOBJOOG NEWS|PUNTLAND: The United Nations mission in Somalia has hailed Puntland for carrying out a historic election in Qardho, Eyl and Ufeyn terming the process as an important milestone in the country’s democratic space.

“The United Nations in Somalia believes that the successful completion of ‘one person, one vote’ elections in Qardho, Eyl and Ufeyn would be an important step in showing the feasibility of universal suffrage elections at local, state and national levels across the country,” read part of the statement.

The United Nations further commended the Transitional Puntland Electoral Commission (TPEC), the government and people of Puntland for their commitment to holding direct elections, as enshrined in Puntland’s Constitution.

Other foreign missions including the UK, Denmark, Sweden among others have also hailed the elections which were incident free.

Thousands of voters lined up in the three districts on Monday to elect district council representatives. The election was a pilot for state-wide elections early next year.

A total of 499 candidates were contesting for the 87 seats in all the three districts.

Results are expected to trickle in from today.