Tuesday August 4, 2026
Mogadishu (AX) — Somalia’s Towfiiq Party has rejected the results of Galmudug’s first one-person, one-vote local council elections, alleging that vote totals were manipulated and did not represent the choice of voters.
In a statement released Monday, the opposition party accused the National Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (NIEBC) of damaging confidence in the process by publishing results that differed from tallies recorded by its polling-station representatives.
“The Somali people expected a fair election that reflected their wishes, but the results announced did not match the votes recorded by our representatives at the polling stations,” the statement said. “Accepting these results risks undermining confidence in the democratic process and discouraging public participation in future elections.”
Towfiiq said corruption and bias had affected both voting and counting, claiming the alleged violations denied Galmudug residents their constitutional right to freely elect their representatives.
The party urged the electoral commission to withdraw the results and commission an independent audit of ballots from the 10 districts that held elections. It said the review was necessary to establish whether the final outcome accurately reflected the voters’ will.
The dispute emerged just hours after the electoral commission announced that the ruling Justice and Solidarity Party (JSP), led by President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, had won the elections by a wide margin.
NIEBC Chairman Abdikarim Ahmed Hassan said JSP secured 135,247 of the 193,451 valid votes cast, giving it 63 of the 189 local council seats contested across Galmudug.
Towfiiq placed second with 26,003 votes and won 12 seats. Sincad took six seats with 12,862 votes, while Karaamo won five seats after receiving 10,668 votes.
The electoral commission has yet to issue a public response to Towfiiq’s allegations or say whether it plans to review the announced results.
