Somali president, Prime Minister’s trade allegations over election delays by Reuters

MOGADISHU (Reuters) – Somali presidents and prime ministers have accused each other of holding parliamentary elections on Sunday, but said the government could stay away from fighting the al Qaeda-linked Al Shabaab insurgency.

Parliamentary elections began on November 1 and were due to end on December 24, but a newly elected member of parliament said only 24 of the 275 delegates were elected by Saturday.

“The prime minister is a serious threat to the electoral process and is running for office,” President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed’s office said on Sunday.

Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble’s office later issued a statement saying the president had “spent so much time, energy and finances frustrating the national elections” and was “obstructing the electoral process”.

The U.S. called for a credible and swift end to Sunday’s election.

“The U.S. is deeply concerned about the ongoing delays and procedural irregularities that have undermined the credibility of the process,” the U.S. State Department said.

Newly elected MP Mohamed Sheikh Mursal said only 24 MPs had been confirmed for the election on Saturday, a day after the process was due to end.

Due to Somalia’s complex indirect electoral process, regional councils must elect a senate. The elders of the clan must elect members of the lower house, and then elect a new president on a date yet to be determined.

In April, factions of security forces allied with Mohamed and Roble took over areas of the capital, with the prime minister and opposition opposing the move to extend the president’s four-year term for another two years.

Clashes between the two groups https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/bowing-pressure-somalias-president-agrees-not-extend-presidential-term-2021-04-27 Forced between 60,000 and 100,000 people to flee their homes.

The dispute was resolved when the president put Roble in charge of security and the organization of the postponed elections.

Roble said in a statement on Sunday that he would hold meetings on Monday to find ways to speed up the election.

President Mohamed’s office also said it would hold a separate meeting on the election and “agree on a leadership issue for timely and transparent elections” without giving further details on how long the process could take.

Somalia, which has had only a limited central government since 1991, is trying to rebuild itself with the help of the United Nations. For more than three decades, he had planned to hold his first direct election this year in a bizarre victory over chronic instability in the country.