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| The National Electoral Commission (NEC) Somaliland announced the results of the first democratic local government election held in the country for more than 3 decades |
The National Electoral Commission (NEC) Somaliland announced the results of the first democratic local government election held in the country for more than 3 decades, one week after the people cast their votes in a non-violent election last. According to the election result sheet distributed by the NEC out of 440067 correct ballot votes UDUB (The government’s party which is in the lead) got 17,389 followed by Kulmiye 83,158 votes, U’id 49,444 votes, Sahan 47,942 votes, Hormood 50538 and ASAD with 39596 votes. 2.5 of the votes cast were invalid. According to this result the first 3 organizations are expected to be the 3 political parties that will take part in the forthcoming election, although the registration committee will make the final evaluation. Chairman of the NEC Mr. Ahmed Ali Adami in a press conference held at the premises of the Ministry of Information described the lateness of announcement as the way of doing things in Somaliland. Elaborating this he said, “Our politics do not depend on urgency and as such we were tiying to answer queries on the election and try to convince the organization and reach an agreement where those were complaints or flaws. Mr. Adami who admitted that there were some irregularities and double voting in some places but denied rigging said, “We do not differ from the rest of Africa and as such we could not satisfy everyone, although we were discussing issues until the early hours (2:00 am) today. He added saying, “No ballot is perfect. It has its irregularities such as the one in the last us presidential election in Florida. What can b expected from people like us who had no previous experience? The main question was whether we will succeed in holding the election peacefully. We did that due to the people of this country, who policed the voting and have the history of safely guiding this nation to safe waters”. Mr. Adami admitted that he couldn’t say the voting was 100%. He said, “Mistakes have been recorded not only by the NEC, but also by international observers and advisors whether they were international or not”. He concluded saying, “We got marking ink from Italy but preferred the one from France. The producers nor the NEC had in mind that some of those who voted would dip their finger in ghee or engine oil, which simplified the removing of the ink for double voting. Dr. Mohamed Abdi Gabbose in a press release complained that there was rigging in a large scale as voters in some of the areas greatly exceeded from the number of expected voters, as well as lateness in counting the ballot papers. Mr. Mohamed Kahin Ahmed accuses the NEC that its representatives were not allowed to be in their posts in some areas and that ballot boxes in some areas were handed over before where they counted. Mr. Silanyo Chairman of KULMIYE paid tribute to the people on their participation in the election. He also, pointed out that their were a lot of irregularities which have to be corrected. Source:Radio Somaliland |
