MOGADISHU (Somaliguardian) – The first senator has been elected as parliamentary elections kick off in Somalia, after months of delays and political crisis that have racked the Horn of Africa nation since a dispute between the federal government and regional states postponed the polls last year.
The former governor of Gedo region Iyas Badal Gabose won the first seat at the upper house of parliament in a vote held in the coastal town of Kismayo, the administrative capital of southern Somalia’s semi-autonomous region of Jubaland.
Iyas won 55 votes against his rival Mohamed Ahmed Sayid who received 17, in a heavily contested election.
Authorities in the restive southern Somalia region announced this week that voting for four Senate seats allocated for Jubaland would start and submitted a list of the candidates running for the posts, but other regional states have not yet announced lists of candidates in the race for senate positions and have set no date for the selection of senators.
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