Thursday December 23, 2021
Mogadishu (HOL) - The Council of Presidential Candidates (CPC) announced that they welcome the Prime Minister’s decision to convene a National Consultative Council meeting to focus on the federal elections, which they have heavily denounced as a rigged process.
The CPC said they are optimistic that the National Consultative Assembly meeting will address the challenges facing the country's elections.
Prime Minister Mohamed Roble’s office said on Tuesday that the National Consultative Council would convene in Mogadishu on Dec 27 to explore ways on “expediting, streamlining and concluding” Somalia’s long-drawn-out and contentious national electoral process that has been fraught with allegations of fraud.
The announcement came just days after the PM held a Zoom meeting with leading members of the CPC and three presidents of Somalia’s Federal Member States.
Among the CPC’s chief concerns were the process in which delegates - represented by clans - are selected and the independence of the Dispute Resolution Committee. Earlier this week, the PM replaced seven members of the resolution committee for showing “political bias.”
During the PM’s weekly cabinet meeting on Thursday, Roble said that they discussed ways to deliver credible polls while simultaneously expediting the process.
Somalia’s international partners have also applauded the PM’s decision to host an NCC electoral meeting.
AMISOM), the EU, Canada, Egypt, Ethiopia, Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), Ireland, Japan, Kenya, League of Arab States (LAS), Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Qatar, Turkey, Uganda, United Kingdom, United States and United Nations all signed a joint-statement where they called for “full transparency.”
“We remain fully supportive of any process that is based on and respects the 17 September 2020 and 27 May 2021 agreements. We urge Somalia’s leaders to conclude the electoral process as soon as possible and urge the implementation of necessary enhancements to correct observed shortcomings in order to ensure the outcome will obtain the support and confidence of the Somali people.”