Somalia is one of the six African countries expected to hold presidential elections next year, a top UN diplomat overseeing its transition has said.
According to media reports, the outgoing representative of United Nations Secretary General in Somalia Nicholas Kay, said the troubled Horn of Africa country has stabilised and is now ready to hold both presidential and parliamentary elections, with those elected committing to respect a four-year term.
‘Somalia is no longer a failed state but a recovering fragile country’ Mr Kay was quoted saying, adding: ‘The country in the past two-three years has come together quite significantly. It is both politically stable and developed as well’.
Somalia, alongside Uganda, Ghana, Lesotho, Zambia and South Sudan, the latter a country which gained Independence and appointed its first President Salva Kiir Mayardit in 2011, are expected to go to the polls in 2016.
However, in June this year Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud had ruled out the possibility of holding a vote with public participation in 2016, citing security challenges stemming from the Islamic insurgency led by the Al Shabaab, an offshoot of Al Qaeda.
Then, opposition parties in the war-ravaged country charged that his UN-backed government was taking advantage of poor security to extend its mandate through postponement of elections.
But President Mohamud’s position seems to not to resonate well with Mr Kay, who avers that the Islamic extremist insurgents will not succeed in undermining the progress being made in Somalia.
Kay, the top UN diplomat on Somalia, also says the political leaders of the country are currently engaging in political dialogue and negotiations with each other.
“These are not armed warlords fighting each other on a clan basis,” Kay said, adding:”They are presidents of interim regional administrations who are more willing to sit and talk than use a barrel of a gun. In so, they are contributing to peace in the country, not to the fragmentation of the state as in the old days.”
Somalia has been torn by decades of conflict since the 1991 ouster of long-time dictator Siad Barre by warlords who then turned on each other. Somalia had transitional administrations from 2004 but it did not have a functioning central government until the 2012 election of President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud.
In 2012, Somali elders were tasked with naming the parliament since no election could be held, given the insecurity occasioned by Al Shabaab around the country.
Somalia’s Parliament then elected a new president but analysts criticized the system.
“Some elders allegedly nominated uneducated and objectionable individuals, some sold seats to highest bidders, and others even nominated their own family members,” the International Crisis Group said then.
