In Somalia, elections scheduled for Sunday are “delayed”

Published on : 07/25/2021 – 4:13 PM

False start in Somalia. The start of the elections, scheduled for Sunday July 25, and at the center of a political crisis that has agitated the country for months, has been delayed, official sources interviewed by AFP said.

This very unstable country in the Horn of Africa was to begin a long electoral cycle on Sunday which begins with the election of the Senate and must end on October 10 with that of the president, according to the official calendar.

The regions of this federal state failed to submit on time the list of candidates who will participate in the poll, nor to form the local committees which must vote, added these sources.

Mohamed Ibrahim Moalimu, spokesman for the federal government, briefly told AFP on Sunday that the elections were “delayed”, however saying that the process would continue.

“Although the program was for the election of the Upper House (Senate) to begin today across the various states, there is a delay, the election should not be held,” a member of the committee confirmed. election, on condition of anonymity.

Threats of the Shebab

According to Somalia’s complex electoral system, special delegates invested by a myriad of clans and sub-clans, within each of the five federated states, choose the parliamentarians, who themselves appoint the president.

According to several sources, the only state in which the poll could be held “within a week” is Jubaland. According to one of them, the committee is already formed there and the president of the region may publish the list of candidates “during the day”.

“We expect the election to start soon,” said Mohamed Adan, a government official in Jubaland, while another source mentioned a possible start of the polls on Sunday.

Sources in Puntland confirmed to AFP that the ballot there was delayed due to “technical problems”. In Galmudug, the local parliament is on vacation and is not due to return until the beginning of August. According to sources in the Southwest, the president of the region is currently abroad, blocking the process.

In April, the two-year extension of President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, aka Farmajo, which expired on February 8, sparked violent clashes in Mogadishu, threatening the fragile balance of the country ravaged by civil war.

At the beginning of May, in a gesture of appeasement, Farmajo had instructed his Prime Minister, Mohamed Hussein Roble, to organize elections as soon as possible.

The government in Mogadishu still controls only a small portion of the territory, with the crucial help of some 20,000 men from the African Union (AU) force, Amisom, which fights against the Islamist Shebab militia.

In an audio message attributed to their leader, the Shebabs on Tuesday warned politicians who will participate in the elections.

With AFP