Somali leaders meeting in Dhusamareb, the administrative capital of Galmudug State, have failed to agree on a plan for facilitating election dialogue.
Reports from Dhusamareb indicate that the leaders have hit a deadlock.
Consequently, Somalis might have to wait longer for a solution for the polls, which are scheduled to take place this year.
Leaders from the Federal Government of Somalia (FGS) and Federal Member States (FMS) have been meeting in Dhusamareb for the past 1-2 weeks.
President Mohamed Farmaajo joined the meeting over the weekend. He has already met with representatives of civil society groups in the country.
Multiple sources confirm that the two sides are unable to work their way through the differences that make any further discussion an impossible task.
The main issue is the model of elections. Farmaajo’s team is hopeful that one-person-one-vote polls are still possible despite misgivings from various quarters.
The National Independent Electoral Commission (NIEC) is unsure if such polls can take place in the country because of the tight timeline involved.
Regional leaders already met in Dhusamareb and indicated their support for NIEC’s view. They called for “politically negotiated polls” instead.