• Interior ministry Sends SMS peace messages
• Bans the movement of vehicles By: Yusuf M Hasan HARGEISA (Somalilandsun) – The government has urged Somalilanders to participate in local council elections peacefully. The interior ministry which urged this in an SMS message which was availed all Telesom Communication company’s mobile SIM Card users tonight. The SMS read: “The interior ministry asks all Somalilanders to maintain peace during the local council election as well as assist security forces”
At the same time the interior minister Hon Mohamed Duur Arale has informed that security forces nationwide are in high alert in order not only to maintain peace and order but as a deterrence to any persons with ulterior motives geared towards disrupting local council elctions to be held on 28th November .
The security chief further informed that all movement of ant type of vehicles has been banned as from 6am to 6pm on the voting day. Said he, “Only vehicles on essential services and bearing authorization stickers from the National Election commission shall be allowed to move around” Those vehicles designated as from essential sectors include Police, Media, Political parties, NEC, and Election observers (local & International) etc By the close of working hours the NEC headquarters in Hargeisa and regional capitals was busy removing and the number plates of the authorized vehicles which were replaced with NEC provided ones. The NEC registration shall be in use for only 12 hours that are during the interior ministry imposed banned. Though this measure has been put in place to deter the ferrying of voters by political parties and their candidates during the election thus facilitate illegal voting (repeat/more than once) it is worth mentioning that massive ferrying of most residents of the capital city Hargeisa to their individual rural areas has been ongoing for the last forty eight hours. As observed by Somalilandsun this ferrying has ensued with the usually bustling capital city turning to a ghost town.
