The International community has protested the reinstatement of an MP who had earlier been disqualified by the national electoral board FIEIT following a gun drama at a polling station in Jowhar.
In a joint statement by United Nations, African Union, European Union, IGAD, Italy Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States the International community stated that they are concerned that election rules had been flouted by allowing a disqualified candidate to be declared winner.
“The FIEIT recently disqualified Mr Mohamed Abdullahi Hassan the outgoing federal Minister of Youth and Sports and another contender for the seat Ahmed Sheikh Nur for their role in the violence that occured inside an outside the polling center in Jowhar last month in which a number of people including electoral college delegates were injured” the statement said.
The statement has accused the state electoral body of flouting rules set by the national electoral body which had banned participation of the two candidates from the Jidle Clan.
“Yesterday’s vote flouts the rules established for Somalia’s 2016 electoral process by the National Leadership Forum which invested the FIEIT with the authority to disqualify parliamentary candidates found to have violated the code of conduct or engaged in abuses and malpractices” the statement said.
“The international community will therefore insist that the decision of the FIEIT regarding the seat allocated to the Jidle clan still stands” the statement added.
The international community now wants the Independent Electoral Dispute Resolution Mechanism (IEDRM) to carry on an investigation into the Hirshabelle elections.
“The vote in Jowhar is deeply troubling”said SRSG Keating.
“If this outcome is allowed to stand and other cases of electoral process abuse are unchallenged then credibility and legitimacy of the entire electoral process will be imperiled” he added
“Any spoilers who are found by the electoral implementation bodies to have violated the rules of the process must be held accountable for the actions”.
Keating added the international community composed of donor countries that have been funding Somalia and it’s neighbours has keenly been following the Somalia indirect elections and this was the second statement condemning electoral malpractice.
