Somaliland’s main opposition party, Waddani has termed the planned extension of President Muse Bihi’s term in office by the national electoral body as unconstitutional.
The opposition party says the National Elections Commission has acted unprocedurally and should have consulted all the stakeholders before making the pronouncement of a new presidential elections date.
The chairman of Wadani party Hirsi Ali Haji Hassan, the presidential candidate Abdirahman Mohamed Abdillahi Irro and other senior officials of the party said that they will not accept a term extension without first consulting with their party.
“The Waddani position is that we will not accept an extension after November 13,2022 that is not agreed upon,” Governor Hirsi said at today’s presser.
He added that they agree with the presidential election timeline submitted by the election committee on Saturday, and that the election cannot be held on time.
The new Electoral Commission announced on Saturday that the country’s presidential election will not be held on time due to financial and technical issues, adding they could hold it in nine month’s time.
Somaliland’s presidential elections are delayed after President Muse Bihi insisted on first registering new political organizations first.
The poll will now be held in nine months from October – or next July – because the current scheduled date of Nov. 13 “is not viable due to time, technical and financial constraints,” the Somaliland National Electoral Commission (SLNEC) tweeted.
“We will be in a good position technically and financially to hold presidential elections in nine months, starting from October 1,” the elections commission said.
In August deadly protests broke out in the region with demonstrators demanding elections be held in November amid suspicions President Muse Bihi Abdi wanted to delay the poll and extend his term.
In a survey carried out in different regions of Somaliland last month, an overwhelming majority of the citizens said they want the nation’s presidential elections be held this year when the term of the current president ends in November.
In the countrywide survey carried by the institute of Public Policy discovered that 92 percent of the 3,300 people (both male and female) interviewed want the presidential elections held this year.
A total of 3,300 people were interviewed for this survey. Out of the 3,330, 1,980 of them were male and 1,320 were female.
The respondents of this survey were almost equally distributed among the 6 big cities of Hargeisa, Borama, Berbera, Burao, Erigavo and Las-anod in Somaliland A majority of the respondents also stated they prefer the presidential elections held ahead of the registration of political parties.
