Galmudug and Hirshabelle go to the polls in combined state and local council elections

Mogadishu (SONNA) - Voting got under way on Wednesday in Galmudug and Hirshabelle, where residents are electing members of the state House of Representatives and local councils in combined one person one vote elections run by the National Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (NIEBC). The Commission’s Chairman, Abdikarim Ahmed Hassan, formally opened polling in Dhusamareeb, the Galmudug capital, and said stations had opened that morning in eleven districts of Galmudug and ten of Hirshabelle. He also inspected polling centres in Jowhar, the Hirshabelle capital, where he followed voter turnout and commended the orderly conduct of the vote. Hirshabelle is the fourth part of the country to hold a one person one vote election in the sequence the Commission has set out, after Banaadir, South West and Galmudug, with Jubaland and direct elections to the Federal Parliament to follow. For Galmudug, the ballot is the second one person one vote election this year, following the vote held on 30 July. In Beledweyne, the main town of Hiiraan region, residents came out in large numbers to the polling stations, joined by regional and district officials and the Hirshabelle Deputy State Leader candidate, Abdifatah Hassan Afrah. Afrah said he had cast his vote in the neighbourhood where he was born, and thanked the people of Beledweyne for the way they had turned out. Large crowds were also reported at polling stations in Jalalaqsi. Hirshabelle State Leader candidate Ali Guudlaawe Hussein described the day as a historic one for Hirshabelle and for Somalia. He said voters were queueing at polling stations and that voting was proceeding peacefully across the state, and urged everyone to use their constitutional right to vote for whoever they believed best served their interests. He asked that the elderly and the vulnerable be given priority at polling stations. In Guriceel, in Galgaduud region, residents formed long queues at polling stations from early morning. The District Commissioner, Farah Abdi Macallin, was among those in line, and said it was the second time he had voted in a one person one vote election. He said residents had a constitutional right to choose the person and the party they wanted, and that the freedom to do so marked a new system of government and a new beginning for the country. Officials of the Federal Government and the Galmudug administration joined residents at polling stations in Galkayo and in Xeraale. In Caabudwaaq, Ambassador Habib Mohamed said people were voting at more than 30 polling centres across the district. Maallin thanked the people of Guriceel for the peaceful and orderly way in which they had come out to vote, and said he hoped the process would be completed in peace