By: Yasin Abdi
Officials of two influential political parties in Puntland boycott upcoming local elections in the region.
Garowe (RBC) Two influential political parties in the Somalia’s semi autonomous region of Puntland have announced on Thursday that they have boycotted the upcoming local governments elections in the region, RBC Radio reports.
The two parties UDAD and Midnimo have criticized the authorities of the Puntland state were hindering the current democratization process by forcibly amending some articles in the region’s constitution to open the door for a new dictatorship in the region.
“We have seen that the people of Puntland are nor satisfied how the current process is going on and we can not sit behind our people.” the leader of UDAD political party Said Abdi Farah said in a press conference in Garowe.
“We will not run fir any elections during the unacceptable behavior from Faroole administration.” Midnimo party official announced at the press conference.
They said they have fully opposed against the modification of 21 articles in the Puntland constitution to seek holding uncertain elections in the region.
They have referred to the international community to intervene the situation in Puntland and prevent hijacking the democratization process in this northern Somalia region.
“The political associations strongly believe that the removal or alteration of these articles from the local council’s elections laws will undoubtedly nullify the fairness and the transparency of the proposed elections and would lead to fraud results.” UDAD political party leader emphasized.
The two parties also condemned the closure of three radio stations in Puntland which the Puntland ministry of information accused of violating new media regulations for broadcasting materials from other outside radios that were banned by Puntland officials in February.
“We strongly call for the administration to respect for the freedom of the press and stop any kind of intimation against free media.” a joint statement from the two parties said.
The two parties also cautioned that Puntland will succumb into chaos and security uncertainty if the current administrations led by Abdirahman Faroole insists going into what they termed as “the failure process”.
The call from the two political parties came after last week’s meeting between the Puntland government and the parties failed to reach consensus on the upcoming elections which were scheduled to hold on May this year.
RBC Radio
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