In Somalia, parliamentary polls are due by November 2020 and a presidential vote by February 2021. However, the Chair of National Independent Electoral Commission of Somalia (NIEC), Halima Ismail Ibrahim, has ruled out the possibility of holding the elections which were scheduled to take place in November.
The electoral head told lawmakers the earliest an election can hold in the country is March 2021. Actually, there are two options; an election based on biometric registration which would be possible in August 2021 or a manual-based registration that can be held in March 2021.
Prior to this statement, Madam Halima had admitted during a workshop in 2019, that security was a major concern in holding elections in Somalia. In April 2020, the electoral commission denied it had any intentions to move polls describing reports that they would do so as fake news.
But, again, the state of Somalia is breaking its one-man-one-vote promise to its citizens and this delay is not without consequence. At the onset of the coronavirus, opposition figures had warned the central government to not use the outbreak as an excuse to postpone elections. Experts at the International Crisis Group also weighed in on the peculiarity of postponing polls in Somalia. “The authorities should resist the temptation to unilaterally extend the electoral calendar or amend voting rules, steps their rivals would almost certainly contest, perhaps violently.”
The incumbent Mohammed Abdullahi Farmajo will be seeking re-election in the coming polls. When he came into power in 2017, there were hopes that he would unite the nation but rather infighting between the federal government and its member states has intensified and Al-Shabab attacks continue in different parts of the country. For opposition figures, President Mohamed has deliberately stuck to an impractical plan one-man-one-vote plan so as to have reason to delay elections and extend his time in office. A breakdown in local and regional trade has hit hard at the Somalian economy, plunging it into further devastation.
The Somalian state is neck-deep in political, health and economic Crisis, further exacerbated by the COVID19 pandemic. Experts have suggested cooperation and dialogue with opposition groups in Somalia need to come to a consensus on the most realistic date for an election and a model that will suit the country’s system of governance.
