Bashe Yusuf: “The Supreme Court is ready to hear election cases”

Somalia’s Chief Justice Bashe Yusuf Ahmed has addressed the possibilities of if controversies were to arise and how to solve them in the country’s upcoming elections.

He said any decision made by the Electoral Commission was administrative, not binding, and could not rule on any election complaint, which was referred to the Supreme Court, he said.

“The Supreme Court is ready to hear any grievances arising from any decision made by the electoral commissions at any level, so I want everyone to be aware of that,” said Chief Justice Bashe.

Somalia’s Chief Justice Bashe Yusuf Ahmed also said in a statement that this was his first time addressing the issue of elections, and that the main controversy over the election could come from elections of lawmakers from the northern regions, with the chairman of the Supreme Court himself hailing from the northern regions of the country.

The statement from the chairman of the Supreme Court comes at a time when the country is expected to hold parliamentary elections soon, and there are complaints about the process.