By Suleiman Sabdow
BAIDOA-Somalia’s outgoing speaker of House of people Mohamed Mursal has successfully retained his seat after garnering 88 votes, trouncing his rival candidate Faisal Ibrahim Hassan who got NO votes, While 12 votes got spoilt according to the electoral commission.
Southwest state is electing 3 seats today in Baidoa for the 11 th Lower House of the federal parliament of Somalia.
The three-seat election previously announced by the South West regional administration Electoral Commission are being contended for by several candidates, including current Speaker of Parliament Mohamed Mursal Sheikh Abdirahman who got re-elected.
The three seats to be contested today are HOP # 18 which has been previously served by the Speaker of the House of the People Mohamed Mursal Sheikh Abdirahman for the past four years, the seat HOP # 170 held by Iman Abdullahi while the seat code HOP # 171 was represented by Fawzia Mohamed Sheikh.
In the coming hours, the elections which are administered by Federal Electoral body of Somalia are expected to come to a close despite various complaints from candidates and other observers of a flawed electoral process.
This is the second election for the House of people after the completion of elections in Galmudug State.Acting Somalia intelligence boss Yasin Farey are among candidates who got elected in Dhusamerab poll.
However, Federal electoral body of Somalia suspended the election of seat HOP#103 due to complaints about the process. Ex- Speaker of Parliament Mohamed Osman Jawari alleged that he was barred from contesting for the elections and accused the seat alleged lack of transparency, fairness in the process.
The international community has expressed their reservations over the credibility of the ongoing parliamentary elections, calling for the elections to be transparent and fair to all stakeholders and the Somali people.
In a joint statement carried on their Twitter handle, the International partners called on the government of Somalia to hold the elections in a free and fair manner and include all the relevant stakeholders in coming up with an admissible outcome.
