INTERNATIONAL PARTNERS ENCOURAGE PARTICIPATION BY ALL LEADERS IN CRUCIAL ELECTIONS MEETING AND OFFER TO FACILITATE IMPLEMENTATION OF OUTCOME

Mogadishu – Somalia’s international partners (listed below) welcome the arrival of the Federal Government leadership and that of several Federal Member States in Dhusamareb, on 15 August, to begin their follow-up meeting, as scheduled.

They also welcome the commencement of work by the joint technical committee tasked with developing options for a compromise electoral model for consideration by the leaders.

The partners strongly encourage Federal Member State leaders who have yet to join the meeting to directly engage with their colleagues now in Dhusamareb to resolve any outstanding issues in order that all may participate.

The partners emphasize that the participation of all leaders in this summit is critical to sustain the consensus-building process and produce a broad-based agreement on modalities for the 2020/21 federal elections that satisfy all Somali stakeholders. They remind all leaders of the importance of safeguarding Somalia’s state building progress and honoring previous commitments.

In this regard, the partners once again stress that any attempt by a single stakeholder, or a few stakeholders, to impose electoral modalities will lack legitimacy and will not be implementable without the essential support from all other stakeholders.

The partners are closely monitoring developments in Dhusamareb and follow up on the actions agreed and stand ready to offer such support as may be requested by all participants to facilitate implementation.
*African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), Belgium, Denmark, Djibouti, Ethiopia, European Union, Finland, France, Germany, Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, Uganda, United Kingdom, United States, and the United Nations.