Somalia: Puntland concludes Lower House elections

GAROWE, Puntland- The parliamentary elections in northeastern region of Puntland has concluded on Monday evening with the election of all 37 lawmakers representing the state in the upcoming Lower House chamber of Federal Parliament, Garowe Online reports.

The ballots resumed yesterday in the capital following weeks break and witnessed the election of 11 MPs. However, today’s ballots were scheduled to wrap up the voting for the remaining 5 seats.

The ballots started early in the morning in Garowe city, with the first seat reported to be succeeded by Anab Hasan Elmi after defeating her opponent Ifrah Nur Mohamed with majority 45 votes, according to the polls results.

Ahmed Ismail Shabeel also secured a parliamentary seat, following a landslide win of 48 votes against his rival candidate Ahmed Ibrahim Awali who received 2 votes. The third seat was triumphed over by Ahmed Mohamed Ahmed “Dubays” who got 42 votes, and was reported that 9 delegates were absent from the voting process.

Continuing, Deeqa Saed Hasan has also became a lawmaker after obtaining majority 50 votes, as her rival candidates didn’t show up to the polling station. Whereas the voting for the last seat has witnessed the election of Ikarn Yusuf Hirsi who obtained 32 votes against Ayan Ali Ismail who received 19 votes.

Despite Puntland was the first state to start the parliamentary election it lagged behind other regional states that concluded the parliamentary elections last week.

The new lawmakers are expected to take part in the sworn-in event in the Somali capital of Mogadishu in the coming week.

The parliamentarians of Lower and Upper Houses are set to vote for the new Speakers of both Houses and the new Somali President end of December.

GAROWEONLINE