USA Describes Somali Electoral Law as “Impractical”

[Deeq A.]

Mogadishu  (PPM ) — The Somali electoral law, which President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed signed into law last week, was the object of a stern criticism by Rodney Hunter, Political Coordinator U.S. Mission to the United Nations.

“We are troubled that some electoral models for 2020 and 2021 under consideration are not practical, they could exclude key communities, or they might provide a pretext for delaying the elections” said Rodney Hunter in a speech a UN Security Council Briefing on the Situation in Somalia.

Rodney Hunter: The Somali Electoral Model is Impractical

The new electoral model for 2020-2021 elections differs from the Vision 2016 on which 2017 election was based due to the exclusion of Federal Member States from the process to prepare Somalia for what Federal Government of Somalia describes “as the first one person, one vote elections since the overthrow of the last democratically elected government in 1969.”

In March 2019 President Mohamed rejected a proposal from leaders of Federal Member States holding a summit in Garowe, the administrative capital of Puntland State. FMS leaders called for the establishment of a Leadership Council modelled on the body that prepared Somalia for the 2017 election.

With no consensus on an electoral model for Somalia, Federal Government leaders bank on article 53 of the electoral law which, in the event of electoral postponement, empowers the Federal Parliament to make a decision on the way ahead. If the electoral law passed by the parliament faces insurmountable political hurdles, how a new parliamentary decision will resolve the constitutional crisis is anybody’s guess. Some analysts view Article 53 of the Somali electoral law as subtle justification for presidential term extension.

Ambiguities in the Somali Electoral Law justify term extension

The electoral law was drafted in such a way as to either hold election in the way FGS wants without getting Federal Member States involved, or to expedite term extension if a national consensus on the electoral model fails to become forthcoming.

© Puntland Post Monthly, 2020

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