Puntland, Jubbaland rejoin Somalia’s election process

Mogadishu,

Somalia’s Puntland and Jubbaland States have finally nominated members to the Indirect Electoral Implementation Team (IEIT).

The two have been withholding this since last year, delaying the Indirect Election Modality adopted on September 17, 2020 by Somalia’s President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo and leaders of the regional governments of Puntland, Galmudug, Hirshabelle, Southwest and Jubbaland.

While the Federal Government and the other three member states nominated members of the electoral committees, Jubbaland and Puntland refused to do so, repeatedly saying they wanted some issues resolved first.

In a joint statement on Wednesday, the two States said members of the international community led by Mr James Swan, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Somalia, encouraged the National Consultative Forum -NCF (the Federal Government and the Federal Member States) to convene a meeting to resolve outstanding differences.

Each State nominated eight committee members.

Puntland and Jubbaland proposed that all NCF members participate in a meeting to be held in Mogadishu on January 30.

The two sides urged the international partners to continue supporting the election process to prevent security and political instability if President Farmaajo's term ends, on February 8, without a deal on the process.

The parliamentary election that was scheduled for 2020 did not materialise.

As such both the parliamentary and the presidential election will take place this year, but only if a full agreement is reached on the implementation of the election process.