written By: Former Chairman of the Transitional Commission for Puntland Elections, Guled Salah Barre
The deadline for local council election day that the president issued today breaks the law and reveals once again the desire to stick to governance that he has been designing for this period. This is due to the following factors:
Paragraph 3 of Article 16 of the Voter Registration Law states that “the preliminary list of voters will be published by the Commission after the completion of registration of all regions.” We all know that the places (two regions) that the Electoral Commission announced that they would register were not done.
According to Articles 15 to 24 of the Voter Registration Law, the Commission, upon completion of registration,
(1) Submission of the preliminary list of electors;
(ii) establish a committee to resolve the preliminary list of grievances;
(iii) resolve complaints on the preliminary list;
(iv) on resolution of the complaint, issue a final list;
(5) After that, the voter cards are printed.
(6) Distribute the cards to the registrants.
The work cannot be done at the time set by the boss.
According to the Local Councils Elections Law, Article 20 Paragraph 1, political organizations must submit the list of candidates for the local councils to TPEC 50 days before the election day. President's Day is 22 days away from today. Registration is still ongoing and the organizations do not know the number of registered voters in each location, the actual number can only be known when the registration ends, and the committee submits the initial list, which is a 7-day period for filing complaints. Progress, complaints are resolved, and then the final list is drawn. So, organizations that don't know the people who registered in each district, how can they make a list of candidates competing in the districts?
According to the Local Councils Elections Law, Articles 21 and 22 stipulates that TPEC must publish the list of candidates for local councils 26 days before the elections when it checks and confirms them and that organizations get 24 days to campaign. While the registration is still in progress, the list of registered persons is not known, organizations cannot prepare the list before knowing the final list of registered persons, how can they campaign?
Many remaining tasks include:
(1) Completion of registration.
(2) Preparing a preliminary list of voters.
(3) Create an initial list of grievance redress committees.
(4) Preparing the final voter list.
(5) card printing;
(6) Distribution of cards.
(7) Preparing a list of candidates for local councils.
(viii) Verification and approval of the list of candidates;
(9) Preparing electoral materials.
(10) Preparing and training election staff.
(11) Preparing and training trade union representatives and observers from the media and civil society. (12) notification to the voter;
(13) campaigns of political organisations; Most of the jobs mandated by law will be done in the remaining 70 days of the president's term?
Or does the president consider the general elections similar to those he used to hold in the army camps that he administered by decree?
We have learned from President Dini's behavior that he has no respect for the law, and the only thing he is working on is his desire to control and use Puntland's powers and resources in a way that is not in accordance with Puntland's rules. .
States make laws to curb these desires. Chief Denny is certainly trampling on established rules in every way, and yet he wants summary judgment that is illegal.
When the President was running on the benches of the Federal Parliament, I said he would be free from greed and remorse.
FG: All the rules you mentioned are on the TPEC website.”