MOGADISCIO, December 26 (Reuters) – The Somali president and prime minister on Sunday accused each other of hampering the electoral process, adding instability in the Horn of Africa state facing the Islamist Shebab insurgency.
Legislative elections, which began on November 1, were due to end on December 24, but a newly elected parliamentarian, Mohamed Sheikh Mursal, said on Saturday that only 24 of the 275 representatives had been elected.
In a statement released on Sunday by his services, Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed said that the head of government, Mohamed Hussein Roble, represents “a serious threat to the electoral process and exceeds his mandate”.
Mohamed Hussein Roble replied in a statement, accusing the head of state of spending time, energy and money to obstruct national elections and “derail the electoral process”.
The US state department on Sunday expressed its “deep concern” about “delays and irregularities that undermine the credibility of the process.”
The regional councils of this federal state were called to designate the lower house of the Parliament which, with the Snat already read, must read a successor to the outgoing president, who seeks a new mandate.
Mohamed Hussein Roble, responsible for the organization and security of the polls, announced meetings on Monday to speed up the electoral process.
The services of the outgoing president specified for their part that Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed would also hold a meeting to decide on a supervisory authority for elections “transparent and on time”. (Abdi Sheikh report, with the contribution of Kanishka Singh, rdig Ayenat Mersie, French version Sophie Louet)