MOGADISHU (Somaliguardian) – Somalia has warned against interference by external actors in its internal affairs and the country’s elections, as tensions continue to simmer over delayed polls.
In a statement addressed to the United Nations Security Council, which was issued on Friday, the government of Somali president Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo said meddling by unnamed external actors in the electoral process would be regarded as interference into Somalia’s internal affairs.
“The federal government of Somalia regards any interference in the process of National Elections by external actors as direct interference into our internal affairs in breach of UN Security Council Resolutions, International Conventions and Laws,” statement reads.
It comes as international community presses the Somali government to resume talks with regional state leaders to bring an end to a long-standing dispute over the country’s elections.
Somali Information Minister announced on Wednesday that talks at heavily fortified base in Mogadishu with regional state leaders collapsed due to obstinacy on the part of Puntland and Jubaland regional state leaders, though authorities of the two semi-autonomous regions have later denied the claims as attempts to derail international community-led initiative to break the deadlock.
In a recent interview with VOA Somali, the director of Heritage Institute for Policy Studies, Afyare Abdi Elmi, said president Farmajo, whose term had expired on February 8, “appears to be planning a power grab” or holding dictators’ elections while Puntland and Jubaland leaders seem to be pushing for dissolution of the government in what many believe may have led to the breakdown of the last round of electoral talks.
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