Somalia crisis deepens as opposition rejects rigged election

MOGADISHU, Somalia - The Union of Presidential Candidates in Somalia has officially boycotted ongoing parliamentary elections in the country, in what could deal a blow to the electoral commission, which has been under pressure to deliver credible polls before the end-year.

For the last months, Somalia has struggled to hold indirect elections, even after stakeholders signed two major agreements which were to give proper guidelines. The country has, however, managed to hold senatorial elections.

In a statement delivered on Tuesday, the candidates insisted that the ongoing Lower House election has been diverted from its right path and lost credibility as the process lacks transparency and fair competition for the seats being scrambled for.

The team noted that State electoral teams [SEIT] are not independent and neutral, arguing that they have bowed to the pressure of the Federal States leaders while the Federal election body [FEIT] takes orders from FGS leaders.

Outgoing President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo has particularly been accused of interfering with the exercise, as the opposition maintains that he's keen to install leaders close to him in Lower House. Farmaajo is yet to respond to the claims.

The candidates, who are set to face Farmaajo, added that the dispute resolution committee failed in its responsibility after rejecting to receive new complaints and not handling the previous ones in a fair manner. The team is mandated to receive complaints from candidates.

Further, the team claimed no electoral delegates were prepared, trained, and sent to polling stations but instead, the government deployed civil servants, soldiers, and delegates who are not the clan belonging to the seat are voting.

In addition, they argued that no election observers and media coverage by independent TV stations. This was originally agreed upon by stakeholders on Sep 17 and May 27 when the final agreement was prepared.

"What is going on can not be termed as an election. It’s naked looting of seats that would lead Somalia into instability, chaos, and further political crisis," reads the statement. "The union of the candidates will not accept and be part of the voter fraud which is aimed at derailing the country from the peace and state-building efforts."

The candidates say they will hold meetings with people from all walks of life for consultations about how to save the country from sliding back into conflict resulting from the disputed election.

Also, they accused PM Mohamed Hussein Roble of not being ready to fix the errors in the election instead he called for the acceleration of the election for the remaining seats of the Lower House. They called on the international community to intervene in the crisis and not wait until things go out of hand as a result of the deadlock over the election.

On Monday night, shortly after the candidates had met PM Roble, the premier held an emergency meeting with Federal Member States leaders, where they extensively discussed ongoing electoral disputes. The country is set to elect 275 MPs but so far, less than 10 have been elected.

A statement from the Office of the Prime Minister noted that the PM Prime Minister urged the FMS leader to ensure that the elections are transparent and conveyed the concerns and grievances earlier raised by the Council of Presidential Candidates [CPC].

Farmaajo, whose term expired on February 8, 2021, has been accused of stage-managing the exercise so that he gets the requisite number of MPs in the Lower House to pave way for his re-election. Both MPs and senators will participate in the presidential polls.

GAROWE ONLINE