By: Yusuf M Hasan
HARGEISA (Somalilandsun) –The Election results dispute between the National Election Commission-NEC and Political parties is to be settled in Court.
NEC has submit the local council election results for Hargeisa municipal to the High Court for arbitration after some parties remained adamant on the demand for a nationwide recount as opposed to the NEC proposal for a review of the 230,000 votes cast in the capital city Hargeisa.
A NEC statement released late afternoon and signed by commissioner Isse Hamari revealed that the election body has gone on its decision to review the results for Hargeisa after failure to reach compromise with some parties.
“The dispute is now solely the domain of the Hargeisa regional court since we have failed to reach agreement with some parties after two days of negotiations” Said Hamari.
The meeting at NEC headquarters came a day after the election body announced its decision to recount the 230,000 votes cast in Hargeisa municipality elections in order to assuage the anger of supporters of some losing parties especially Haqsoor.
During the meeting that was intent on establishing guidelines for the review, four political parties demanded a nationwide recount while the election body remained adamant on its decision to review the Hargeisa municipality tally only.
According to Commissioner Hamari the election body was forced to repudiate its Hargeisa vote review decision and request the courts arbitration after a two days stalemate in discussions.
The election results dispute reached its zenith last Thursday after NEC announced the vote tally for Hargeisa municipality thus violent demonstrations by supporters of Haqsoor which ensued with the death of three people and severe injuries to others among them police officers.
The controversial decision to review the disputed Hargeisa election results was announced on Saturday Commissioner Isse Yusuf Mohamed ‘Hamari’ who informed that the review decision emanates from a desire to stop further bloodshed
The NEC Statement read:
Quote- the National Election Commission takes this opportunity to inform Somalilanders the local council elections of the 28th November 2012 we undertaken in compliance with the dictates of relevant laws.
The legality of procedures of the one day exercise was witnessed by International election Observers from 17 countries and 800 local observers while each of the seven contesting parties had agents at each of the polling centres in corners of the country.
Following disputes arising from preliminary election results released by NEC and subsequent failure to reach agreement with political parties on guidelines for and areas in which a vote recount shall be undertaken the national election commission has on this day 10/12/2012 decided to seek the courts arbitration.
The Hargeisa municipality election results dispute and more specifically that of Faroweine district shall be resolved by the Marodi Jeeh regional court.
To this effect NEC wishes to ask the seven political parties, their candidates and supporters as well as the general populace to seek redress through established legal channels thus deter from acts that might jeopardize the good image accrued by Somaliland international following positive reports by over 50 international election observers from 50 countries-Unquote
At a function commemorating the world human rights day, earlier in the day the head of state H.E Ahmed Mahmud Silanyo had asked NEC to ensure that the it satisfied the citizenry through release of impartial election results.
