Tuesday April 5, 2022
President of the Southwest State of Somalia, Abdiaziz Hassan Mohamed 'Laftagareen'/ Photo: Southwest State House
Mogadishu (HOL) - The South West State of Somalia (SWS) announced on Tuesday morning that it would no longer cooperate with Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble on election issues, accusing the PM of "withholding seats" from the federal member state and violating the independence of the electoral commissions.
The statement published by the South West State House and retweeted by the regional president, Abdiaziz Hassan Mohamed Laftagareen, comes hours after PM Roble suspended two members from the Federal Electoral Implementation Team (FEIT) accused of obstructing the swearing-in process.
SWS says that the PM's decision to suspend members of FEIT was illegal and that they would "never accept the reckless behaviour of PM Roble."
The state also accused PM Roble of hijacking seats from the region.
"The PM has kidnapped members of the FEIT and, while hiding behind them, illegally withheld three seats from the SWS with no reason. SWS considers such a move to be politically motivated and has made it very clear that it rejects this blatant attack to derail the electoral process."
Earlier this week, the FEIT published the results of the parliamentary elections for both Houses. The federal election commission did not include four seats - three from South West - whose results they say have been suspended.
PM Roble was charged with managing Somalia's federal indirect elections following a deal struck by the federal government and regional states on September 17, 2020.