By Shire Abdi - Reporter
Somalia, 20 May 2026 Somalia’s federal government presented a roadmap for one-person, one-vote to opposition figures at Halane, but the talks ended without an agreement.
Somalia’s Deputy Prime Minister Salah Ahmed Jama said the three-day talks held at the Halane compound centred on electoral arrangements and ways to implement direct elections.
“We came to the talks with an electoral framework based on the principles of one-person, one-vote elections, which we believe is the right option and what the Somali people expect from us,” Salah said in an interview with Dawan Media's Mizan Podcast.
He defended direct election model, saying it reflected public expectations and years of government preparations.
“The discussions lasted three days. There was extensive debate and many issues were brought closer together, but unfortunately no final agreement was reached that both sides could accept,” he added.
The deputy prime minister said the talks were not focused on forming a transitional government but rather on establishing a technical committee that could advise on the timing and implementation of direct elections.
“The discussion was not about creating a new transitional government, but about forming a technical committee to provide recommendations on how to schedule and organize one-person, one-vote elections,” Salah said.
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The deputy prime minister accused opposition groups of resisting the implementation of direct elections and remaining attached to what he described as outdated political approaches.
He also argued that opposition politicians had not presented an alternative electoral proposal.
“I have not heard, and the Somali public has not heard, any alternative proposal better than one-person, one-vote elections that the opposition has brought to the table,” he said.
Opposition figures have offered a different account of the Halane talks. Former Galmudug president Abdikarim Hussein Guled, a member of the Somali Future Council, previously told Mizan Podcast that opposition groups had raised issues including President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s mandate, the possibility of a caretaker government and the formation of a separate committee to oversee election-related matters.
The federal government has maintained that the talks were focused solely on implementing direct elections, though both sides failed to reach political consensus.
Political analysts say the differing accounts of the Halane discussions reflect widening divisions between the federal government and opposition groups over constitutional reforms and Somalia’s electoral process.