MOGADISHU (HAN) September 26.2016. Public Diplomacy & Regional Security News.By Abdi Sheikh. Somalia will hold its postponed parliamentary elections between Oct 23 and Nov 10, the chairman of the electoral commission said, after the vote was delayed for a second time due to disputes over the selection process.
Voting for the 275-seat parliament was due to begin this weekend but candidate lists had not been finalised, Omar Mohamed Abdulle told a press conference late on Monday.
“The challenges that led to the delay were political, security and management of the election budget. Clan leaders have not completed the list of their delegates,” Abdulle said.
Presidential elections will be held on Nov. 30, and a parliamentary speaker and the upper house of the legislature will be chosen on Nov. 23, he said.
Somalia has been at war since 1991 and the government said threats from the al Qaeda-linked Islamist insurgent group al Shabaab prevented it from organising a one-person-one-vote election.
Al Shabaab has called on its followers to kill clan elders, officials and lawmakers taking part in the parliamentary election and to attack polling venues.
Instead, about 14,000 people representing federal states across the nation will choose the new lawmakers. The outgoing parliament, elected in 2012, was picked by only 135 elders.
(Writing by Katharine Houreld; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)
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