UN Security Council wants Somali leaders to "urgently" fix electoral impasse

NEW YORK -Somalia leaders must take the "earliest opportunity" to break the political impasse in the country, the United Nations Security Council [UNSC] has said, adding that a solution must be reached on the model and nature of upcoming elections.

For months now, AP reports, stakeholders from all spheres, including those from the international community, have been trying to unlock the stalemate, but suspicions from either side of the political divide, have technically made it impossible for the country to move forward.

The country had planned to hold elections from December last year but the administration of President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo failed to implement various electoral agreements, including those signed on September 17, 2020.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the UN Security Council said inclusive elections should be done "soonest" following a closed-door meeting with UN envoy to Somalia James Swan. Mr. Swan has been in the frontline, trying to unite both the opposition and the outgoing government for the sake of peace.

Since February 8, Farmajo, whose term expired, has been under pressure to either resign and hand over power to transitional authority, or pave way for smooth and credible elections. Puntland and Jubaland states have accused him of failing to implement various agreements, including the recent Baidoa recommendations.

Some of the divisive issues pertaining to the upcoming elections include members of the electoral committee, the selection of commission members from secessionist Somaliland, and the withdrawal of federal troops from Gedo, a region that neighbors Kenya.

Critics accuse Mohamed, who is seeking a second four-year term, of delaying the election to extend his current mandate. The president has blamed unnamed foreign interventions. On Wednesday, opposition MPs accused Speaker Mohamed Abdirahman Mursal of plotting to extend Farmajo's term.

But for the security council, all parties should implement the September 17 pre-election deal, arguing that it captured most concerns. This was the second appeal this month by the U.N.’s most powerful body for action to organize elections.

Early this month, the council urged the federal government and regional states “to organize free, fair, credible and inclusive elections” in accordance with the September agreement “without delay.”

That appeal was in a resolution that authorized the African Union to maintain its nearly 20,000-strong force in Somalia until the end of the year with a mandate to reduce the threat from al-Shabab and extremist groups to enable “a stable, federal, sovereign and united Somalia.”

The council on Wednesday “reiterated their condemnation of terrorist attacks by al-Shabab and reaffirmed their support for the national sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of Somalia.”

During the meeting, the council commended efforts by the African Union Mission Forces of trying to liberate most parts of the country from the Al-shabaab militants. The AMISOM team has close to 22,000 soldiers, most of whom are set to leave Somalia upon full implementation of the Somali Transition Plan.

Barbara Woodward, who is the British Ambassador to the UNSC, who called for the meeting along with other council members, said Swan told the council that Somalia’s electoral process required “urgent attention.”

She said the council very much welcomes Swan’s efforts “to bring the parties together and to proceed with elections as soon as possible, but without compromising.”

Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Representative of the United States to the United Nations and Security Council President for the month of March on the situation in Somalia, also reiterated that the Somalia leaders should solve the electoral impasse soonest.

Somalia began to fall apart in 1991 when warlords ousted dictator Siad Barre and then turned on each other. Years of conflict and al-Shabab attacks, along with famine, left this Horn of Africa country of about 12 million people largely shattered.

Al-Shabab rebels were ousted from the capital, Mogadishu, in 2011 and have been pushed out of other key cities but still control large parts of southern and central Somalia and often target the capital with suicide bombings.

GAROWE ONLINE