A huge rally has been planned for Mogadishu on February 19 to protest the inability of the country to hold elections.
A former president of the Federal Republic of Somalia made this announcement on Sunday.
Ex-President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed announced the planned anti-government protests while addressing the media.
Ahmed is a member of the Council of Presidential Candidates’ Union together with 13 other candidates from the opposition.
While announcing the planned protests, Ahmed said that the opposition candidates were disappointed at the inability by the government to organize and hold elections.
Somalia is behind schedule.
It was supposed to hold parliamentary elections in December 2020 before these were postponed to January 2021.
Parliamentary polls are yet to take place despite the term of the current parliament expiring in December 2020.
Presidential polls were scheduled for February 8, 2021 upon the expiry of President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo’s term. These are yet to take place, either.
The opposition believes that Farmaajo and his administration are not ready to hold elections.
Consequently, it plans to hold anti-government protests around the country to force the government to hold polls.
The series of protests kick off in Mogadishu on Friday.