BAIDOA (Halbeeg News) – Southwest state assembly has postponed the presidential elections of the state slated for November 17.
In a press conference, the deputy chairperson of the Standing Committee of Southwest state Assembly, Mohamed Nur Mohamed has announced that the state delayed the presidential elections to two weeks.
“Due to technical problems, the election has been postponed. The election will take place after two weeks,” Mohamed told the reporters in Baidoa, the administrative capital of Southwest state.
According to sources, the resignation of the members of the election’s organizing committee earlier this month has led to the delay of the election.
The remarks of Mr. Mohamed comes a day after UN called on presidential candidates in the country’s South West State to promote a free, fair and transparent vote in the state’s regional assembly.
Raisedon Zenenga, UN secretary general’s deputy special representative for Somalia who met with the speaker of the Southwest state Assembly stressed the world body’s stance of impartiality in the elections which are very crucial for the stability of the Horn of Africa nation.
“We are there to support the process and make it more transparent and more credible so that the result is not contentious and is accepted widely,” said Zenenga in a statement released by the UN mission in Somalia on Tuesday evening.
“We have a stake in the election in the sense that we want to see a credible one, (but) we don’t support any particular candidate,” the UN official said.
The state’s former president Sharif Hassan resigned on Nov. 7 and withdrew from the upcoming election, citing widespread interference in the poll.
Major contenders for the presidential election include former finance minister Mohamed Aden Fargeti and Sheikh Mukhtar Robow, a co-founder of the al-Shabab. Robow has since abandoned the terror group.
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