Halimo Ismail of the National Independent Electoral Commission (NIEC) has announced that the country is incapable of holding elections by November 27 as scheduled.
Initially, Somalia was to hold the first round of elections on October 2020 before following this up with presidential polls in February 2021.
However, Commissioner Ismail says the country would have to consider postponing the elections to 2021.
According to NIEC, the Federal Parliament has two options worth considering.
The first is to prepare for elections based purely on biometric registration. If parliament selects this option, then NIEC would be ready to hold elections in August 2021.
The second option involves proceeding with manual-based registration, which would allow NIEC to organize elections in March 2021.
The news is likely to attract plenty of criticism from politicians, especially those who believed President Mohamed Farmaajo’s administration had always preferred delaying the polls.