Key stakeholders, including officials of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), have called on all political actors and their supporters to refrain from violence as they discussed peaceful elections in the country.

The conference was organised by the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ), the Political Affairs Unit of AMISOM, the government of Somalia, and Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa (EISA).

There are more than ten candidates for Somalia’s indirect presidential elections, in which four big clans and other minority tribes choose members of parliament that will decide the country’s next head of state.

But the opposition candidates have accused President Mohamed Abdullahi Faramaajo of bypassing the electoral law by stacking the poll committee with his allies.

The committee, it is understood, coordinates the parliamentary elections before the presidential poll. The elections are scheduled for February.

Tensions among key parties remain high and electoral preparations are understood to be lagging.

The two-day national conference sought to ensure a safe environment for the media to operate, and promote freedom of expression.

‘We denounce and reject any form of hate speech and incitement to violence as well as any form of mis- and disinformation which can exacerbate election-related tensions and call on all actors and candidates to avoid using these types of statements as well as their specific use in social media and the use of “computational propaganda’, they declared.

Deputy Special Representative of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission (DSRCC) for Somalia, Simon Mulongo, reechoed the need for the media to exercise responsible journalism.

Source: Radio Dalsan

Photo source: Radio Dalsan