Ambassador Marika Fahlen Terms Rayale’s decision “unwise”

Ambassador Marika Fahlen Terms Rayale's decision "unwise"

LONDON, United Kingdom (Somaliland Globe)- Ambassador Marika Fahlen, Swedish Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa, dubbed Rayale's decision to hold the forthcoming presidential election in Somaliland without voter registration list as "unwise". 

In an interview with Hiiraan Online, Ambassador Fahlen said that her country, which currently holds the EU presidency, support an election through voter registration list and that Somaliland needs "a step further of the last election where there was no voter registration". 

"We think the president has taken an unwise decision and we hope he will reverse his decision and return to what is international standard for elections," said Ambassador Fahlen. 

She said although Sweden supports the election to take place on 27 September as planned, the current political crisis prevailing in Somaliland is making it increasingly difficult to hold it as scheduled. 

"If this is allowed to continue there is a risk that Somaliland's reputation to democratize itself and hold elections will fall over the cliff and that will not be good for Somaliland," she added. 

Somaliland's last presidential election was one of "the most closely fought of its kind on the African continent", with Rayale retaining his office by a razor thin margin of 80 votes. KULMIYE, the main opposition party initially cried foul but after exhausting its appeal accepted the result. Since then there was a dire need for systematic and comprehensive registration of voters in preparation for future elections in Somaliland. 

The National Electoral Commission (NEC) has since embarked on a comprehensive registration of voters with technical and financial assistance from the EU donors however when the final voter list was produced by Interpeace, the agency in charge for digital Voter List Production, the NEC and president Rayale rejected the list as a credible basis for the holding of free and fair elections. 

President Rayale unilaterally decided to expel Interpeace from the country and hold the presidential election without voter list. The NEC acquiesced with the president's decision but this was rejected out of hand by opposition parties, KULMIYE and UCID, which saw it as contrary to the Somaliland Electoral Law and flies in the face of the consensual agreement between the political parties. 

A parliamentary resolution passed on 11^th August called for the president to reverse his decision within 7 days or else face impeachment.

 Somaliland Globe