The international community has warned Somalia’s new parliament against corruption practices, emphasising the need for the embattled nation to “move forward” as new MPs are set to select the next President.
With direct elections beset by a number of issues including infrastructure constraints and security, the Somali government announced in 2015 it was abandoning the idea of holding a popular ‘one-person one-vote’ system. Instead, 135 traditional clan elders have selected 14,000 delegates, effectively forming 275 clan-based electoral colleges, who have voted for MPs to sit in the lower house of parliament of the troubled Horn of Africa country.
These new MPs, who took their oath of office on 27 December in a democratic yet complex election, are poised to select the next President by secret ballot, this electoral process has come under criticism.
In a statement, United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon “warmly congratulate(d) the people of Somalia on this historic achievement in their quest for universal suffrage by 2020”, but urged parliament to “maintain the momentum by moving swiftly to complete the electoral process” in the “larger interest of the people of Somalia”.
This was echoed by the UN’s Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM) which tweeted, “Somalia is moving forward”.