Sunday November 22, 2020
MOGADISHU (HOL) - The political row over the appointment of officials to conduct elections for Somaliland MPs took a new twist Saturday after Upper House Speaker Abdi Hashi named a parallel team comprising of eight members.
Hashi who hails from Somaliland and is the senior most elected official from the break-away region unveiled the new list Saturday escalating political differences with President Mohamed Farmaajo and PM Mohamed Roble.
Opposition politicians and presidential candidates have protested the move by Farmaajo to appoint the committee demanding that lawmakers from Somaliland be left to choose their own committee.
According to the agreement reached by the country’s leadership in September, the federal and state elections committees were to be constituted latest October 20 to pave way for training between October 21 and 30.
But the disputes over composition of the committees are likely to make it difficult to meet the electoral deadlines. The election of MPs was set to kick off this month while that of Senators was to start from December 1-10.
Meanwhile 12 opposition presidential candidates, all of which have challenged Farmaajo against the elections committee issue kicked off a three days meeting in Mogadishu Saturday.