This archive report was first published on 22 August 2019.
Kenya has expressed concern over the United Nations' demands on Somalia's Jubbaland electoral agency ahead of a presidential poll on Thursday.
Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Monica Juma said the UN's demands risk splitting the state, which shares a boundary with Kenya.
On Sunday, Juma wrote to UN Under-Secretary for Political Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo, stating that the Jubbaland Electoral and Boundaries Commission (JIEBC) has already made too many concessions.
"The election in Jubbaland cannot be expected to be perfect. However, the JIEBC has, in the face of daunting challenges, done its best to ensure that the vote is as fair, inclusive, transparent, credible and humanly as possible," Juma wrote.
She accused UN boss James Swan of making selective demands on JIEBC "while not doing the same to its critics".
Some 27 federal parliament MPs, Puntland State President Said Abdullahi Dani, former Galmudug State President Abdulkarim Gulled, and ex-Somali presidents Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and Sheikh Sharif Ahmed have endorsed the work of the commission.
On Monday, JIEBC chairman Hamza Barre rejected calls to extend the reopened window for candidate registration, insisting that the election would go on as planned.
The commission said it consulted everyone involved in the poll before deciding the three-day window was sufficient for those hopefuls who felt left out.
