Puntland Designates polling stations for upcoming local elections
Garowe-Puntland’s electoral commission announced polling station locations and voter registration centres on Thursday for the upcoming direct local government elections.
The Transitional Puntland Electoral Commission revealed that voters in nine administrative regions throughout Puntland’s 37 districts would cast their ballots at 524 polling stations.
Mudug region, Puntland’s largest region, will host 120 polling centres, followed by Bari with 108. Sool has the fewest polling stations, with 24, followed by Nugal and Ayn, with 25 each.
TPEC said that mobile teams would service rural areas.
The electoral commission did not set a date for the heavily anticipated election. Puntland officials have speculated that it could happen in early 2023.
Tens of thousands of Puntland voters cast their ballots in direct local government elections last October, marking the first time Somalia held a popular vote in over five decades. In the end, the Kaah Party, led by President Said Abdullahi Deni, emerged as the biggest winner, securing 35 seats – or 40% of the total vote share.
However, the democratic electoral experiment was only limited to three districts – Qardho, Eyl and Ufayn – and not without criticism from stakeholders. Despite this, the election was hailed as a success by international partners, including the UN, who visited Qardho and said they were pleased with how it was conducted.
Two months after the historic vote, the head of Puntland’s electoral commission, Guled Salah, resigned under unclear circumstances. Puntland’s regional government said that the abrupt resignation would not affect its ability to host state-wide elections despite significant delays to its proposed schedule.
TPEC announced in late May that local council elections would be held between October and November and that the results would be announced and certified by January 2023.
