By M.A. Egge
Voters will now be able to cast their votes at polling stations other than those that they had initially they registered at.
The new mode was revealed by non-other than the chairman of the National Electoral Commission Eng. Abdiqadir Iman Warsame.
“We reveal to the members of the public a new means of voting that will ease their casting of ballots tasks by being able to vote at a polling station that they did not initially register at”, said Eng. Iman.
The NEC chairman made the revelation at a VOSOMWO function whereby both the government and the opposition parties were invited.
VOSOMWO is an organization that caters for the needs of the minority members of the communities.
Eng. Iman appealed to the members of the public to take their part and register themselves as electorates in the national exercise which has been announced to kick-off from the 21st of July this year.
He said that the NEC only played the part of refereeing in the elections that would pit the three official political parties in their political contests.
“We are impartial hence are only referees”, he said, and added, “it is our role to be so hence we shall be diligently sincere”.
He said that he expects the populace to register themselves in large numbers such that they may exercise their political rights.
Desertification, pasturelands and water scarcity needs addressing fast- Bihi
The illegal fencing off of vast pasturelands, the worsening crises of water scarcity and rapid desertification through charcoal burning are the three main issues prioritized by the KULMIYE political party that they would advice the government to swiftly address.
These precarious facts are what the party’s top hierarchy has listed high in their itinerary to table for the government following their recent long trip to the eastern parts of the country as revealed by the party’s chairman Mr. Muse Bihi Abdi.
In a journey that took them to Sahil, Togdeer, Sool, Sanaag and Saraar regions, the chairman said that the scarcity of water due to rapid urbanization coupled with the desertification that has trebled and the burning of charcoal for fuel are the main debilitating issues that are seriously affecting the populace in the country, whereby they are mostly pastoralists.
Mr. Bihi said that their trip was propelled by the need of taking stoke of the party’s grassroots situation and support, evaluating their needs, revitalizing the impetus needed to have rapport with the populace and the imperative needs of earmarking policies to be embarked on.
He said that he was happy to have seen people who were quite patriotic and who had at their hearts, their country, hence lived together peacefully and in harmony.
Mr. Bihi defended the KULMIYE government’s policies and pledged that since they last won the hearts of the electorate, they would triumph even further. The chairman was giving an interview to a local Somali language news portal after returning from the eastern trip.
He announced that he would take a similar tour to the western parts of the country, thus Gebiley, Awdal and Selel regions. The chairman appealed to the media fraternity to help the state fight corruption, a menace whose vice he admitted to be intricately embedded in the fabrics of our social life.
He pointed out tribalism, pauperism and lack of jobs to be at the heart of the problems as their chief causes.
Senior officials of the KULMIYE party were part of the chair’s delegation.
He was mainly flanked by deputy first chairman Mohammed Kahin and the secretary general Hassan Said.
