Elders Disqualified from Selecting MPs for the Next Puntland Parliament

[Deeq A.]

Poles apart: Dirir (left) said elders would not select MPs for the next Puntland Parliament in an electoral plan denounced by Senator Farole (right) as a plot “to rig elections for three handpicked political associations”.

Garowe (PP News Desk) — In what is billed as a major development in Puntland democratisation process, the Information Minister of Puntland State Mohamud Aidid Dirir told BBC Somali Service that “elders will not have any role in selecting MPs for the next Puntland Parliament”.

Dirir described the democratisation process as a means to moving away from the old system in which citizens were denied to exercise their right to elect lawmakers. “Three political associations out of nine will become political parties after [the second phase] local government are conducted at 37 districts. Who will elect a President in 2014 is a political question to be addressed by three political parties along with voters” he added.

The Former Puntland State President Senator Abdirahman Farole denounced the electoral plan. “The [Information] Minister told us the process through which the local government elections will be rigged for three handpicked political associations. Districts are not properly demarcated. The aim is to trigger a political crisis similar to the one brewing in Somaliland” said Farole.

Horseed a political association founded by Senator Farole underperformed during the 2021 pilot local elections conducted at three districts in Puntland. Yesterday, Puntland Interior Minister Abdi Farah Said presented at a council of ministers’ meeting the electoral plan to conduct the second phase of local elections to be overseen by Transitional Puntland Electoral Commission (TPEC).

© Puntland Post, 2022

The post Elders Disqualified from Selecting MPs for the Next Puntland Parliament appeared first on Puntland Post.