November 7, 2018 | Morning Headlines
Interior Ministry Tells South West State Leaders To Respect Election Schedule
06 November – Source: 252Politics – 178 Words
The Ministry of Interior and Reconciliation of The Federal Republic of Somalia has urged South West state leaders to respect and adhere to the presidential elections timetable. The call comes shortly after more than eleven members of the regional presidential election coordination committee resigned on Monday night over what they termed as interference in their work..
According to a press statement from the office of the Interior Ministry, published by the official national news agency SONNA, the Federal Government of Somalia (FGS) has called upon the leaders to respect 17th November elections’ timetable: “The Ministry of Interior and Reconciliation calls upon the leaders of South West state to conduct the presidential elections on November 17th as originally scheduled,” reads part of the press statement.
The statement from the Interior Ministry added that cancellation of the elections beyond the stipulated time will not be accepted. The FGS also urged the South West regional assembly Speaker and Members of the regional Parliament to perform their constitutional mandate by ensuring peaceful, free and fair presidential elections are held on November 17th.
Key Headlines
- Interior Ministry Tells South West State Leaders To Respect Election Schedule (252Politics)
- State Law Empowers Us To Postpone Poll-S. West Elders (Goobjoog News)
- Turkish Defense Ministry Delegation Set To Visit Mogadishu On Wednesday (252Politics)
- U.A.E. Military Base In Breakaway Somaliland To Open By June (Bloomberg)
- Excitement As Mogadishu Gets 4G Mobile Network (Daily Nation)
- Trump’s Existential Threat Has Fueled The Rise Of Minnesota’s Somali Political Class (Quatrz Africa)
NATIONAL MEDIA
State Law Empowers Us To Postpone Poll-S. West Elders
06 November – Source: Goobjoog News – 254 Words
Elders from South West state have maintained their stand to postpone the presidential election arguing it is in tandem with the state’s constitution, which empowers them to step in and rule in cases of such disputes. While announcing the postponement of the elections initially slated for November 17th, the Council of Elders Chairman, Ali Hassan, said the move follows clear interference by the Federal Government of Somalia (FGS).
“The Council of Elders of South West, referring to the Constitution of the state, article 60 (c) , (d) (e) and (f) have hereby decided to put off the elections set for November 17 until a favourable atmosphere prevails,” Hassan said. Article 60 (c), the Constitution stipulates that the elders can be consulted on a matter concerning the government and raised by one of the state institutions: “The elders will judge and provide a final decision when need arises,” sub article (d) reads. In the event a Parliament is not elected, sub article (f) notes, the council of elders can take up the role of MPs.
In their accusation against the FGS, the elders said they had noted bribery, use of state resources and transportation of MPs to Mogadishu: “The intervention refers to the fact that government stood by some of the candidates who were given cash and bullet proof cars, and further some of state MPs were transported to Mogadishu, given money and ordered to support their favorite candidate,” claimed Hassan. The decision came even as the FGS maintained the elections must proceed on November 17.
Turkish Defense Ministry Delegation Set To Visit Mogadishu On Wednesday
06 November – Source: 252Politics – 163 Words
A high level delegation led by Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar and his deputy and Armed Forces Chief Yassar Guler, are expected in Somali capital on Wednesday. According to sources, the main aim of the visit is to assess the needs of the Somali military and give necessary support to the Federal Government of Somalia (FGS). The delegation is scheduled to carry out similar assessment in Sudan and Libya to help strengthen military cooperation.
The republic of Turkey has been a very close ally of the FGS since the high profile state visit of President Rajab Erdogan on August 2011 to show support for the victims of drought and famine in the country. Ankara has also enjoyed very close diplomatic and defence cooperation with Mogadishu.
More than sixty Somali military officials were airlifted to Istanbul for expert training by Ankara some weeks ago, in an assignment of commitment by President Erdogan’s government in an effort to rebuild the quality of Somali armed forces.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
U.A.E. Military Base In Breakaway Somaliland To Open By June
06 November – Source: Bloomberg – 659 Words
A United Arab Emirates military base in the self-declared republic of Somaliland will begin operating by June and include a coastal-surveillance system, according to a diplomat involved in talks for the facility. The U.A.E. is growing its military presence in the Horn of Africa to help protect trade flows through the Bab el-Mandeb strait, a key shipping lane used by oil tankers and other cargo vessels en route to the Suez Canal. Emirati footholds in Somaliland and Eritrea provide strategic locations as the U.A.E. supports the Saudi Arabia-led war against Houthi rebels in Yemen.
The surveillance system will be used to protect the base in the Somaliland port town of Berbera and monitor the territory’s 800-kilometer (500-mile) coastline, former ambassador to the U.A.E. Bashe Awil Omar said. Pirates have hijacked vessels off Somaliland’s coast, including the seizure of a vessel in March 2017. “The U.A.E. military base will help the whole region — piracy, illegal fishing, toxic dumping: we don’t have resources to watch our coast,” Bashe said in an interview in Somaliland’s main city of Hargeisa. “The U.A.E. has become the hub of the whole region in terms of trade. For the U.A.E. to secure that strategic position, it cannot do that if it does not secure the lifeline of trade.”
The 42 square-kilometer (16 square-mile) facility will consist of a naval base and two parallel runways, he said. Situated adjacent to a port operated by state-owned DP World Ltd., its first runway of 4.9-kilometers is almost 60 percent complete, according to Bashe, who moved to the post of ambassador to Kenya in August. The U.A.E. is separately expected to train the Somaliland coastguard, Bashe said. “With the DP World development activity, we now hope to get a big piece of the cake,” Captain Abdullah Omar, an adviser to the Somaliland coastguard, said in an interview. “We are the only entity that has the legal right to police and implement the law of the sea on the Somaliland coast.”
Excitement As Mogadishu Gets 4G Mobile Network
05 November – Source: Daily Nation – 289 Words
Somtel telecommunications, a mobile telephony company in East Africa, has introduced a 3G/4G mobile network, and eDahab mobile money transfer services to its customers in Mogadishu, Somalia. During the launch of Somtel’s new services that will provide fast internet, voice and data services to towns and rural areas on Sunday, the company announced a share offer to the public. Somtel is a member of Dahabshiil Group which also operates Africa’s leading money transfer company. The eDahab facility, which will provide financial services through the mobile phones, it expected to be a big boost to the burgeoning e-business sector in the region.
Dahabshiil Group founder and chairman Mohammed Said Duale said the introduction of the Somtel services in Somalia was part of their wider plan to expand its coverage beyond the Horn of Africa. “Somtel will bring new and vital services, including the latest voice and data services and fibre optic technology at competitive rates to customers in Mogadishu and other places,” said Mr Duale. He added: “eDahab mobile payments and Dahabshiil Bank, which are compliant with local and international laws, will ensure customers access more banking and financial services. Customers will now access new and better services at competitive rates.”
Those who attended the event included Somalia’s Deputy Prime Minister Mohammed Guled, former President Hassan Sheikh, Minister for Commerce and Industry Abdi Hayir Maareye, Deputy Senate Speaker Abdi Hanshi and Mogadishu Mayor Abdulrahman Omar among other top government officials. Speakers at the event praised Somtel and Dahabshiil Group for supplying fibre-optic technology and innovative telecommunication services. They said that this would contribute to the development of the region besides generating new employment opportunities. The officials said Somtel’s share offering will provide exciting investment opportunities to many people.
OPINION, ANALYSIS AND CULTURE
“To get citizens to exercise their right, the campaign to vote has gone to mosques, malls, and madrassas. Around the state, clerics have been asking congregants to vote; candidates have hung their posters and stumped in popular Somali hangout spots like Karmel Mall”
Trump’s Existential Threat Has Fueled The Rise Of Minnesota’s Somali Political Class
06 November – Source: Quartz Africa – 1404 Words
Mohamud Noor understands why every single vote matters—and more so now than ever. Among the first Somali-Americans to ever compete for office in Minnesota in 2010, Noor ran for seats on the Minneapolis school board, city council, and state house—and lost all, sometimes very narrowly. That changed in 2013 when he was appointed to the Minneapolis school board on a 5-3 vote, catapulting his progressive bona fides to the state level.
In August, he clinched the Democratic primary nomination to represent District 60B in southeast Minneapolis, a robust, diverse area that encompasses the University of Minnesota (U of M) campus and the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood known as “Little Mogadishu.” Nineteen years after arriving in the United States from war-torn Somalia, the 40-year-old is set to become the first Somali-American man elected to a state house.
A lot is at stake in Minnesota’s midterm polls, with an open race for governor, two Senate seats, a competitive attorney general race, and several hotly-contested congressional races. Yet Noor is far from being the only Somali who will be making history on the ballot. In the Minnesota state legislature, he will be joined by Hodan Hassan who will be the second Somali-American woman to be elected to that position.
That ceiling was first shattered in 2016 by Ilhan Omar, who is on course to become the first African refugee and one of two Muslim women elected this year to the US House of Representatives. Fardousa Jama is running for a city council position in Mankato city, the first Muslim woman to do so in south-central Minnesota while Siad Ali is also running for a second, four-year term on the Minneapolis school board.
More than anywhere else in the US, Somalis have carved a niche in local elective politics in the North Star state. With an estimated population of 150,000, the United States is home to about 7% of the world’s Somali migrant population, many of them in Minnesota, according to the United Nations. But they are by far the most important diaspora bloc, acting as a lifeline for thousands of families back in Somalia who rely on their remittances to get food, shelter, healthcare, and education.
Decades after fleeing their own fractious nation, their rise as a crucial voting bloc is a telling reflection of a maturing polity and shows the gradual but vital strides the community has made despite everything. Their electoral success, especially in the 2018 midterms, is also a story about the American dream and lies at the intersection of migration, gender, religion, race, ethnicity, and the place of the African diaspora in the US political discourse.