Hashi, Gulaid in row over Somaliland's electoral committee

MOGADISHU, Somalia | A sharp dispute has erupted between Senate Speaker Abdi Hashi and Deputy Prime Minister Mahdi Gulaid over the composition of electoral committee members, who will be leading the exercise from July 25 when the country goes for elections.

Both sides, reports indicate, want to control the election of Somaliland lawmakers to the Federal Parliament. The two political bigwigs have been wrangling over the composition of the elections committee, almost stalling the exercise due to endless battles.

According to reports, the State Indirect Elections Team [SIET] for Somaliland has failed to reconcile differences and unite to conduct elections starting with the Senate polls in two weeks. After senatorial elections, the country will create MPs polls from August 10.

The faction led by Deputy Prime Minister Mahdi Gulaid, on Saturday appointed Khadar Harir Hussein as the chairperson of the elections committee and will be deputized by Najib Hussein Sample. Hussein was previously a Villa Somalia employee and now a senior official at the National Refugee Agency.

But Hours later, the other faction headed by Senate speaker Abdi Hashi held a parallel meeting and appointed Suleiman Aideed Osman as chairman and Abdishakur Abib Hayir deputy. This has now led to almost the collapse of elections in the region.

Somaliland has 15 members in SIET, contrary to other regions in the country. The Office of the Prime Minister appointed three while the Hashi and Guled sides are made up of six members each.

Abdi Samatar, a senior scholar and a close ally of Hashi said the two sides differed over the composition of the SIET and the polling centre. The Mahdi side which has the backing of Villa Somalia ‘wants the elections to be conducted at the police academy in Mogadishu while we want it done at the Airforce Hangar in Afisioni’, Samatar said.

The differences are likely to drag the upcoming elections which start on July 25 with the election of Senators while that of MPs will run from August 10 to September 10. After parliamentary polls, Somalia will hold presidential elections on October 10.

GAROWE ONLINE