A Joint Statement by Puntland Political Associations about the Current Democratization Process

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  • Country: Somalia - Puntland
  • Language: English
  • Document Type: Domestic Law or Regulation
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A Joint Statement by Puntland Political Associations about the Current Democratization Process

25th March 2013, Garowe

To: His Excellency, Dr . Abdirahman Mohamud , President of Puntland State of Somalia
Cc: Chairman of Puntland Trans itional Electoral Commission
Cc: Director of DFID , Somalia
Cc: UK Ambassador to Somalia
Cc: EU Special Representative to Somal ia,
Cc: UN Secretary General Special Representative to Somalia
Subject: Resolving Local Municipality Elections Stalemate
With the government of Puntland ‘s announcement about a year ago that that a true multiparty
system will come into play in Puntland , starting this year , in order that every citizen could hav e
a final say about the shape of Puntland’s next government, we decided to be part of that process
with all the due r aw and disagreements that followed about the validity of the fifth year of this
administration. However, with all patience exercised up to now by our political associations, we
would not whatsoever compromise on our principles towards achieving a fair an d transparent
democratization process that can uphold the wish es and the interest s of our people for deciding
the fate of the ir future .
Relating to the above, M r. President as you are well aware, the government of Puntland has
submitted two days ago a new draft of local council’s elections law to the Parliament. The
objective of this motion is to remove / modify around 21 articles in the current law; some of them
are decisive and crucial , in an extra ordinary session of the House of Representative that is
currently underway . These desired changes will completely alter among others the following :
1) Article 3, section 1; that every voter must hold an ID card which defines that s/he is a
citiz en of Puntl and State of Somalia i.e. th ere will be no conditions restricting the status
of each voting individual in Puntland
2) Article 4, section 1; that each ho lder of a Puntlander ID card has a right to vote in the
nearest place to her/him during the voting day if s/he has already included in the voter s
registration list.
However, with due respect to Puntland state institutions, t he revealed justification for this
motion is to quickly facilitate without any pre -conditions the voting process of local
councils that is planned to take place in May this year, with no consideration whatsoever to
the consequences that will result fro m such actions.

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On contrary to that , we as 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 .
Emphasizing on that , the undersigned political associations will not in any way:
 Accept to be part of an election process that would certainly mislead the opinion of our
people and distort their cho ices
 Or else c ontribute as accomp lices to corrupted election results that would undoubtedly
put our region in the hands of devil and cause civil unrest and internal clans fighting.

Opposing that, we propose the following as a basis for lasting solution to the local election crises
in Puntland :
1. That the government must combine its maximum effort together with attracting donor
support in order of speeding the voter registration system and distribution of Puntland
IDs , sinc e the obligation of the government had not been fully geared in the last eight
months in order of realizing this target .
2. That all political associations, PTEC and Puntland government must come together in a
meeting to look for common understanding on out standing issues and resolve this matter
in a way that serves the interest of our people.
3. That since the electoral commission has not exercised any neutrality on the dis put ed
points over the past few months; an alternative option to form another new commission is
of high priority to most of our political associations.
4. That local municipal election must be delayed until the government ensures th at ID
system g ot firmly in place and voter registration list established . This will take a
maximum of four months after discussing it with local ID professional companies .
5. That a constitutional court ought to be established before the election date to arbiter any
disputes that arises during voting days.
6. In case that local municipality elections failed to organize as per the plan outlined in
PTEC road map due to lack of v ote r registration data base, we propose a two year
transitional government that takes over authority starting from the end of this year . The
main mandate of this new caretaker government is to focus the complet ion of the
democratization process which is already underway in Puntland in a span of not more
than two year’s period .

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