The Federal Government of Somalia (FGS) has offered to drop some of the contentious names from the list of commissioners making up Federal Electoral Implementation Team (FEIT).
For months now, opposition candidates have hit out at the government for including names of National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) officers in FEIT.
The government was supposed to constitute FEIT in consultation with opposition politicians and other stakeholders.
However, it went ahead to constitute the electoral team alone.
Opposition politicians have repeatedly said that FEIT is full of NISA officers, civil servants, and President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo’s loyalists.
On January 10, three Federal Member States (FMS) who are loyal to Farmaajo held a meeting with opposition presidential candidates in Mogadishu.
During the meeting, the FMS leaders presented an offer from Farmaajo’s side to the presidential candidates.
They informed the candidates that the government was willing to remove the contentious names from FEIT and reconstitute it afresh.
The government seems intent on holding elections on time.
Local and parliamentary elections are already late after they failed to kick off in December 2020 when parliament’s term expired.
It is doubtful whether presidential elections would take off in February 2021 as expected when Farmaajo’s term in office expires too.