Somalia’s Jubbaland regional state assembly has elected Ilyas Badal Gabose as the first member of Somalia’s senate as the much-delayed polls in the country officially kicked off in the southern port city of Kismayo.
The Jubbaland regional assembly is expected to vote for three more candidates today.
Mr Gabose is a former governor of Lower Jubba Region and a close ally of Jubbaland regional state President Ahmed Mohamed Islam, also known as Ahmed Madobe.
The seats of 54 senate members are distributed among Somalia’s regional administrations – Jubbaland state has been allocated eight of those seats.
The other regional administrations have not yet announced the date for their elections to the two houses of the federal parliament.
The election of the first member of the Somali senate in Jubbaland officially opens the country’s much-delayed parliamentary and presidential elections.
Repeated delays in the elections had led to deadly violence in the capital Mogadishu as leaders failed to agree on the electoral process.
Source: BBC
