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| US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken |
WASHINGTON, Feb 10 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The US government has cracked the first whip on spoilers of Somalia’s transition project seen as the hurdles for the country’s completion of the much-delayed elections.
On Tuesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken banned an unspecified number of senior government officials thought to be faces behind the spiraling delays in completing elections initially set to be completed by Feb 8 last year.
Now Washington, whose new ambassador to Somalia presented credentials this week, says completing elections will be the surest way of ending the country’s instability as it will provide the needed legitimacy to continue rebuilding institutions.
The visa ban came exactly a year after the term of President Mohamed Farmaajo expired but which meant he could stay in office longer as there were no elections held.
“Today, on the one-year anniversary of the expiration of the Somali president’s term in office, I am announcing the implementation of a policy under Section 212(a)(3)(C) of the Immigration and Nationality Act that restricts the issuance of visas to current or former Somali officials or other individuals,” said Blinken.
Those officials, he said, “are believed to be responsible for, or complicit in, undermining the democratic process in Somalia, including through violence against protestors, unjust arrests or intimidation of journalists and opposition members, and manipulation of the electoral process. Immediate family members of such persons may also be subject to these restrictions.”
The US had been warning spoilers ever since polls began formally in September last year. The country has already managed to elect the Senate of 54 members and gave itself until Feb 25 to complete elections for the Lower House of 275 legislators. The two houses sit in a joint session to elect a President, part of the indirect election arrangement designed for the country to beat security and other challenges.
“The best path toward sustainable peace in Somalia is through the rapid conclusion of credible elections. The United States has repeatedly expressed concern over the delays and procedural irregularities in Somalia’s electoral process and the broader implications of those irregularities for the country’s democracy and stability,” Blinken added, demanding urgency in rolling out the remaining bits of the polls.
The identity of those banned was not revealed as is tradition with US government officials not to publicly discuss individual visa rejections. But Blinken said it will specifically apply to individuals “who have played a role in procedural irregularities that have undermined the electoral process, who have failed to follow through with their obligations to implement timely and transparent elections, and who have targeted journalists and opposition party members with harassment, intimidation, arrest, and violence.”
On Monday, the US Ambassador to Somalia Larry André presented his credentials to President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo.
The envoy pledged his commitments to strengthen ties and cooperation between the two nations, showing his commitment to enhancing the interests of both peoples. — NNN-AGENCIES
