February 8, 2017 | Daily Monitoring Report
Lawmakers Make Way To Polling Centre, Total Shut Down In Mogadishu As Nation Holds Breath For New Leader
08 February – Source : Goobjoog News – 376 Words
Somali Parliamentarians are today casting their votes for the president in a hotly contested race drawing in 22 aspirants as the city remains on shutdown mode for the second day. The 328 lawmakers from the Upper and Lower Houses of the Federal Parliament will each cast a vote through the secret ballot option with the winning candidate requiring at least 219 votes which translates to two thirds majority. Two senators from Somaliland who were elected Tuesday are expected to be sworn in ahead of the vote while Jubbaland will miss out on one MP since the election in the southern state was cancelled by the Federal Indirect Electoral Implementation Team, FIEIT in a third re-run.
Security clearance; preparations for the exercise are underway as MPs, observers and journalists make way into the Afisyoni Air Force complex inside the Aden Adde Airport. Goobjoog News correspondent says the queues are still long amid heavy security and clearance process. Those entering the facility are not allowed to carry in smartphones , our correspondent says. The UN and African Union Mission in Somalia are beaming the event live while local TV stations are also hoping to transmit the historic event.
The central business district of Mogadishu and its environs is deserted with a handful of residents on foot as roads are completely blocked. All shops, restaurants and any other commercial outlets are closed while the erratic gunfire to clear traffic or just indiscriminate firing by gun holders cannot be heard in the city today. Several mortar shells however broke the silence of the night last evening hitting parts of Hamarweyne and Waberi districts located near the polling centre. A bomb went off also near the central business district last night. No casualties were reported though in both incidents.
Aspirants made the last ditch attempt to secure much needed votes last evening with the incumbent Hassan Sheikh Mohamud hosting dozens of MPs at SYL hotel in the city. Coalition arrangements are also said to be taking shape as the aspirants work out the last game of numbers. A second round vote will tilt the scales in whichever direction and reports of a joint vote by opposition MPs in the second round have emerged as efforts to unseat Hassan Sheikh Mohamud build up.
Key Headlines
- Lawmakers Make Way To Polling Centre Total Shut Down In Mogadishu As Nation Holds Breath For New Leader (Goobjoog News)
- Six Killed In Dawn Attack On A Hotel In Bossaso (Goobjoog News)
- Security Crackdown Underway Near Mogadishu (Goobjoog News)
- Somalia Faces Presidential Election Under Threat Of Attack (Associated Press)
- Somali Elections: Mogadishu Traffic Ban Ahead Of Presidential Vote (BBC)
- Somaliland: The Inflation Vs Mobile Money Banking Fiasco (Hiiraan Online)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Six Killed In Dawn Attack On A Hotel In Bossaso
08 February – Source : Goobjoog News – Words
Six people including four security guards and assailants have been killed in a dawn attack on a hotel in Bossaso, Northern Somalia. The attack carried out by several gunmen suspected to be Al-Shabaab happened at around 6am on Wednesday at Village Hotel in the outskirt of the Gulf of Aden port town. The men who invaded the hotel were armed with AK-47 rifles and grenades. Our correspondent in Bossaso says heavily armed men raided the hotel leading fighting between the hotel guards and the attackers.
A security officer who spoke to our correspondent said they engaged the assailants. “We have now killed two attackers,” he said. “They came under cover of darkness and attacked the hotel while some of the guards were sleeping.” No group has claimed the responsibility but Al-Shabaab launches periodic bomb-and-gun attacks against hotels and other places where government officials are known to congregate. The group has been fighting since 2006 to overthrow the government and set up a strict Islamic state.
Security Crackdown Underway Near Mogadishu
08 February – Source: Goobjoog News – 134 Words
A big security crackdown has been reported to be underway on the outskirts of Mogadishu where an Al-Shabaab ambush attack happened on Tuesday night. The operation conducted by Somalia’s security forces is underway in Sarkuusta and Elasha Biyaha Biyaha near Mogadishu, and it came following last night’s Al-Shabaab ambush on Somali government troops bases in the two areas.Security officials termed the operation as one aimed at bolstering security and nabbing criminal groups in the area. The movement of people and vehicles were restricted during the operation with business operation coming to a standstill as security forces continued with their crackdown carrying out house to house search. It is not yet known how many were arrested. The operation also comes as the capital Mogadishu hosts Somalia’s presidential elections to elect the country’s eighth president.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Somalia Faces Presidential Election Under Threat Of Attack
08 February- Source: Associated Press – 130 Words
Somalia faces a groundbreaking presidential election Wednesday amid a security lockdown that has closed the capital’s international airport and cleared major streets.Fears of attacks by extremist group al-Shabab have limited the election to the country’s legislators, who will vote at a heavily guarded former air force base in the capital, Mogadishu. Rounds of voting are expected to narrow down the 22 candidates to a winner.
This Horn of Africa nation is trying to put together its first fully functioning central government in a quarter-century. Years of warlord-led conflict and al-Shabab attacks, along with famine, left the country of about 12 million people largely shattered.While the international community pushed Somalia to hold the election as a symbol of recovery, the vote has been marred by reports of widespread corruption.
Somali Elections: Mogadishu Traffic Ban Ahead Of Presidential Vote
08 February – Source: BBC – 326 Words
A traffic ban has been imposed and major roads sealed off in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, ahead of a presidential vote.MPs will gather at the airport to elect a new head of state.On Tuesday evening, suspected Al-Shabab militants launched a series of attacks, with two mortar rounds fired close to the venue where the vote will be held.Residents in Arbacow village outside Mogadishu say jihadists attacked an African Union military base there.
More than 20 candidates are vying to become Somali president, with the top three proceeding to a second round of voting and the top two from that round going forward to a third and final vote.Incumbent President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud is standing for re-election and analysts say he is likely to be one of those who goes forward to the later rounds.Results are expected later on Wednesday.
The airport is viewed as the most secure site in the Somali capital and voting was moved there from a police academy because of growing security concerns.Wednesday’s security measures will include a ban on flights to and from Mogadishu airport.Correspondents said most schools and offices remained open on Tuesday but people had had to walk to reach their destination.Analysts say holding the election in the airport environment may also reduce the
possibility of vote buying or other corruption in the election process.
OPINION, ANALYSIS AND CULTURE
“Mobile Money Banking (MMB) is another modern mode of digital payment system, which is continuously gaining a growing momentum across the global financial and business societies. This technology has tremendously added great values to the financial communications between people and entities in terms of efficiency, security and convenience,”
Somaliland: The Inflation Vs Mobile Money Banking Fiasco
07 February – Source : Hiiraan Online – 2479 Words
When it comes to an African leader, I adulate Mr. John Magufuli of Tanzania, and when it comes to an African nation, I adore to that of Rwanda “a country that was synonymous with genocide only 22 years ago, but a beacon of peace and prosperity today”. The secret is so simple, just ‘competency’, not a miracle or magic. The outspoken orator, a typical visionary, yet a combative critique on the corruption ridden African leadership and the heartless people who are always behind such leadership on the basis of tribal and ethnicity sympathies Dr. PLO Lumumba, has time and again expressly depicted how ‘incompetency’ has sent the people’s’ layman to the top of the throne resulting in power abuse and public wealth manipulation. I solemnly confess and second that the same bunch of predators indoctrinated with much of what Dr. Lumumba demonstrated occupies a power loophole made by a long political figure, but a tired nonagenarian president, Ahmed Mohamed Mahmoud (Silanyo).
The roughly 3.5 million people that forms the unknown republic among the global nations had drastically been challenging with issues much related to the basic necessities that human should have to pursue a suitable life. We Africans, are always a part of the systems we often complain about; as what the same doctor above has labeled, “Feeling Good Effect attitude” galvanizes our moral values; feeling proud of having a corrupt politician with ethnic affiliation(s), whilst he/she doesn’t even know you personally.
It really feels like something far beyond what the average human consciousness can digest. Somali people in general are 100% a monotheistic people and belong to one religion (Islam) with no sects whatsoever; day and night we do mumble prayers towards Mecca (the holy city), but much of our actions are far beyond what we do practice. This is the reason Somalia statically rests without improvements at the bottom of the global corruption indices, as the world’s most corrupt nation on earth. I don’t have to sing longer with the gross failure we all share, but let me come down to the point, for which I have taken the keyboard.
TOP TWEETS
@UNSomalia: #Somalia‘s Presidential election: MPs and delegates gather before voting starts. Follow live: https://unsom.unmissions.org/ #Doorashada
@fqdayib: The stage where Somalia’s future will be decided is set. Will these MPs & senators save it or destroy it? Today will tell us. #ChooseWisely
@HarunMaruf: BREAKING: Suspected militants have attacked a hotel in the Red Sea port town of Bosaso, #Puntland: reports @VOA_Somali
@HarunMaruf: Still unclear which group is behind Bosaso hotel attack, both Al-Shabab and pro-Islamic State militants are active in Puntland. #Somalia
@Xarbi: Fate will decide today who will run #Somalia for the next four years, towards political stability and towards path rebuilding this nation.
@IOL: Somalia’s al-Shabaab kill four in hotel attack http://dlvr.it/NKBKTQ | Independent Online
@AbdirahmanCumar: Breaking: Voting has just commenced in the #Somalia Presidential election
@Agayare: BREAKING: #Somalia‘s MPs are now voting for the country’s next president at #Mogadishu airport. Several candidates pulled out from the race.
IMAGE OF THE DAY
Somali legislators at the voting venue as they prepare to elect the country’s president today
Photo: @farhanjimale