In a meeting with President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, Prime Minister Omar Abdisrashid Ali Sharmaarke, and Speaker Mohamed Osman Jawari yesterday morning, the United Nations, Inter-Governmental Authority on Development, European Union, United States, United Kingdom, Sweden and Italy underlined their expectation that Somali leaders would present, in the coming days, an agreed model for the electoral process later this year, an implementation plan, and a political roadmap for the period 2016-2020, which they had committed themselves to in the ‘Mogadishu Declaration’ adopted at the conclusion of the National Consultative Forum held in Mogadishu on 16 December 2015.
International partners, including the African Union, welcomed discussions in Kismaayo and the apparent narrowing of the gaps between Somali leaders on the electoral model for 2016. It was positive that Somali leaders had spent several days deliberating on the most appropriate and feasible model for the electoral process to be implemented later this year. International partners, while disappointed that no agreement had been reached yet, welcomed the commitment of Somali leaders to urgently achieve a compromise.
In their talks with federal leaders, international partners underlined their continued strong expectation that there will be no extension of the constitutionally mandated term limits of the legislature and the executive, in accordance with repeated declarations to that effect by the Somali leaders. This reinforced the imperative for talks to continue and for an agreement on a detailed electoral model, an implementation plan and a political roadmap to deliver universal suffrage elections by 2020, to be reached in the coming days. In the Mogadishu Declaration of 16 December, Somali leaders committed themselves to presenting an agreement by 10 January. They must now put the interests of the nation first, in order to complete the Somali-led and Somali-owned process that began in July last year and has involved large numbers of Somalis from across the country. Time is short, and much remains to be done to ensure an electoral process can be implemented by August without delay.
International partners also offered their support to the Somali leaders as they continue their efforts to agree a detailed electoral model. They looked forward to a meeting of the Somali leaders in the coming days to finalise the electoral model and called on all leaders to engage constructively and in a spirit of compromise. International partners stressed their readiness to assist the Federal Government of Somalia and all other stakeholders in this process. With consultations of the members of the UN Security Council on 28 January and the forthcoming African Union summit in Addis Ababa just days later, they reiterated their expectations that work on the electoral model, implementation plan and political roadmap would be completed well in advance of these important meetings.
