Farmajo asks AU to mediate in Somalia’s political crisis
MOGADISHU, Somalia – The African Union [AU] should take a leading role in conveying Somalia’s political impasse, outgoing President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo has said after his recent trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo, whose president Felix Tshisekedi is the current president of the Addis Ababa-based institution.
Farmajo arrived in Kinshasa on Sunday and proceeded to a meeting with President Felix Tshisekedi, with whom he held a two-hour meeting, leading to agreement that the African Union should take a leading role in resolving the current stalemate.
The DR Congolese presidency said: “Today, President Felix Tshisekedi met with the President of the Federal Republic of Somalia, Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo, with whom they agreed to have the AU as the leading mediator in the current political stalemate in Somalia.”
The continental body has not previously found concrete solutions to the election crisis elsewhere in Africa, with a number of opposition groups accusing them of being biased. President Felix Tshisekedi is the current AU chairman.
At a two-hour meeting with Tshisekedi, Farmajo said the DRC president should use his capacity as president of the African Union to facilitate the process. The movement may give Somalia’s political stakeholders another chance to return to the negotiating table.
“As for Somalia’s efforts to hold peaceful, inclusive and timely elections, my government would welcome the AU’s role in facilitating a Somali – led and Somali – owned engagement process that would lead to dialogue,” Farmajo told Tshisekedi.
“I welcome the African Union to take a leading role in facilitating an electoral process in which every citizen elects their representatives through free and fair elections. All Somali stakeholders will actively participate in the dialogue on the future of our democracy,” he added in a tweet.
The statement, despite giving hope for dialogue, clearly shows that Farmajo is not prepared to reject the extension of his two-year term by the House of Commons, as he insists on implementing a direct poll, which had been ruled out on 17 September. before the election part.
After the extension of its term, the House of Commons insisted that the National Independent Electoral Commission [NIEC] of Somalia should be intended to hold referendums on universal suffrage. The House of Commons said the Commission should complete the exercise within two years.
AXADLETM
