Jubbaland and South West states finish Senate polls as 5 quit race in Baydabo

Jubbaland senatorial elections concluded Wednesday afternoon with a marginal vote for women as men took up seven slots out of eight.

One female candidate Muslimo Abdirahman dropped her bid for the senate seat in the floor of the house shortly before the votes for the number six seat she was contesting with Ahmed Abdi Hafiid were cast.

Her exit from the race handed the men a majority in the house after Zeynab Abdi Samaw lost to former Jubbaland vice president Abdullahi Ismail Fargaag who garnered a majority 55 votes. Zeynab got 11 votes.

Fadumo Hassan Adan beat her competitor Waris Abdi Mohamud in a women only contest taking up 42 seats. Waris got 25 seats.

A total of 67 MPs participated in the exercise.

However in a seat number seven, a late comer in a second round tilted the vote in favour of Iftiin Hassan Imaan after it was held in a 33 to 33 tie in the first round. It was not however clear how he was allowed to vote yet he missed the first round.

Professor Mohamed Abdi Gandi a seasoned politician in Jubbaland who fought alongside current President Ahmed Madobe until Kenya soldiers entered Kismayu in 2012 lost out to Ahmed Hashi Mohamed 26-40.

In South West State voting which was expected to run into late night or Thursday morning ended unexpectedly after five candidates out of ten who were yet to contest dramatically dropped their bid handing automatic tickets to the remaining five.

The circumstances under which the five quit was not immediately clear.

Three candidates had been elected by late Wednesday afternoon. They were Abdikafi Maalim Hasan, Ilyas Ali Hassan & Timiro Mohamed Ali. Timiro beat emerged the first female senators from South West state after beating her female opponent Nuurto Nuur Jille.

Zamzam Ibrahim Ali was the second female senator for the state.

Those who were declared senators after their opponents dropped their bids were Hussein Sheikh Ahmed, Abdullahi Ali Garuun, Zamzam Ibrahim Ali, Aden Abdi Aden and Abdullahi Mohamed Abdi.

Puntland state assembly will elect its senators Thursday. The state was allocated 11 seats alongside Somaliland. All the others have 8 seats.