The African Union (AU) has promised to support the electoral process in Somalia while encouraging politicians to seek consensus on the most contentious issues.
It also commended the country’s political leaders for the electoral agreement signed in September 2020, which the Upper House and Lower House already approved in a joint session.
AU believes that the electoral deal provides the country with a solid platform for engagement ahead of the upcoming elections.
Somalia holds local and presidential elections in December 2020.
Presidential polls would then follow in February 2021.
Francisco Madeira, the AU Representative to Somalia, provided these assurances in his speech delivered to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).
Madeira stated that Somalia would only move forward “through consensus and reconciliation.”
He reminded Somalia’s political leaders to use the electoral agreements signed in Dhusamareb and Mogadishu to heal the country, which has known nothing but decades of political turmoil.
Madeira told UNSC that African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) would not stop supporting the Federal Government of Somalia (FGS) to not only prepare but also conduct elections in the country.