Thursday July 9, 2020
MOGADISHU (HOL) - During today’s virtual Cabinet meeting, the Somali Prime Minister Hassan Ali Kheyre has signalled to his objections to term extension to current government’s mandate and stated that Somalia is at a stage where it needs to have a broader consultation and agreed consensus on the way forward to conduct elections which commands the support of the Somali stakeholders. The Prime Minister also acknowledged the political, security as well as constitutional difficulties that an extension could bring. The Prime Minister’s dismissal of term extension appears to be at odds with the recent proposals of Somalia's National Independent Electoral Commission (NIEC) who have stated that it will not be possible to hold elections this years, based on the electoral modalities they have put forward.
“Elections must take place on time. We should not be working based on the assumption that there will be term extension. A term extension could lead to chaos in the country” the prime minister said.
Hiiraan Online has learned from key sources within the Office of the Prime Minister that the Cabinet has agreed unanimously for the Prime Minister to travel to Dhuusamareeb to assure the leaders of the Federal Member States that the Federal Government has no intention of delaying the elections. Critics of the federal government are not convinced this will happen, as they believe Prime Minister Hassan Ali Kheyre is unlikely to head his Cabinet’s advice given the track record of disagreement between the Federal government and some of the member states on the current electoral process.
The meeting of the federal member states will begin in Dhuusamareeb tomorrow and the key topics for discussions are the relationship between the centre and the member states, Somalia’s upcoming elections and the contentious issues surrounding the election models presented by the electoral body on June 27 2020.
HOL will keep its readers up to date as soon as any further news develops from these stories.