The United Nations envoy for Somalia on Monday urged the Somalia government to conduct elections in the country as soon as possible after gunfire broke out during an opposition demonstration in the capital Mogadishu last week, reported France 24.
During a quarterly video conference of the UN Security Council, James Swan urged Somalia’s political leaders to do away with confrontation and avoid risky winner-take-all tactics. He said it’s high time that they should pursue dialogue and compromise to reach an inclusive and credible political agreement to hold elections as soon as possible based on the 17 September model.
Farmajo and Somalia’s five regional leaders reached an agreement that abandoned a promised one-person, one-vote ballot but offered a common path forward for elections.
As part of the agreement, the government was due to hold an election by February 8 when President Mohamed was due to step down. But the deadline was missed as the political leaders could not resolve squabbles over how the vote is to be conducted. The delay in the election led to a constitutional crisis in the already-fragile state.
A coalition of opposition candidates has said they no longer recognize Farmajo as the country’s president and have vowed mass protests until he steps down.
“I remain convinced that the consensus-based 17 September model offers the best available option to proceed quickly to an electoral process for selection of members of parliament, senators, and the president,” the UN envoy said.
Swan warned that there should be no partial elections, no parallel processes and no unilateral actions by Somali leaders as such approaches would only lead to greater division and risk of confrontation. He called for credible elections to be held as soon as possible.
The UN envoy stressed that the humanitarian situation in Somalia continues to remain dire, with an estimated 5.9 million people needing aid, up from 5.2 million last year.
