Somalia will hold presidential and parliamentary elections in early 2021, removing doubt that it will delay the elections because of the spread of the coronavirus.
According to Prime Minister Hassan Ali Kheyre, “Holding a timely election is more important than anything else at this time and it’s one of the primary goals which the public entrusted us,” he said in a speech following a cabinet meeting.
Somalia has endured two decades of civil war and is fighting the worst desert locusts invasion in recent years and at the same time fighting an insurgency by Al-Shabaab and Al-Qaeda linked group.
The government is seeking debt relief as the COVID-19 pandemic adds to the country’s woes.
Somalia has almost 2,000 cases of coronavirus with a health system that is ill-equipped to deal with the outbreak.
