Somalia's Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre says federal elections will be held in parts of Jubaland where conditions allow normal voting, while an alternative electoral mechanism will be used in places where polling cannot take place. The statement adds an operational detail to the federal government's broader push for direct elections and places Jubaland directly inside the continuing national dispute over electoral rules and authority.
Dawan reported the remarks from Hamza's Miizaan Podcast interview published on September 26. The prime minister cited Jilib, Bu'aale, Xagar, Jamaame and Badhaadhe as examples of places where prevailing conditions could prevent normal polling.
Where voting cannot be conducted, Hamza said, the "single constituency" system would provide a mechanism for proceeding. His remarks describe the federal government's intended method for handling uneven access across Jubaland rather than announcing that every district will use the same procedure.
Direct voting remains the federal government's stated model
The statement fits the federal government's existing electoral policy. In May, the Office of the Prime Minister said the government intended to implement one-person, one-vote elections and described direct voting as part of its democratic programme. The federal government's published constitutional amendments also describe direct universal suffrage and a multi-party system as part of the revised constitutional framework.
Those formal changes have not ended the political argument over the next national election. Opposition leaders and the administrations of Puntland and Jubaland have disputed parts of the federal electoral framework, including the rules, management and constitutional basis of the process. Talks in July ended without a comprehensive agreement.
The dispute is therefore about more than whether Somali citizens should vote directly. Federal authorities favour elections administered through the national electoral institutions and registered political parties. The Somali Future Council has advocated a transitional model that would preserve elements of the 4.5 clan-based seat allocation while moving toward direct voting. Each side presents its model as the more lawful or workable route, and no comprehensive settlement has yet reconciled those positions.
Jubaland sits at the centre of the federal dispute
Jubaland's own relationship with Mogadishu has been strained by arguments over recognition, state elections and federal authority. In June, Jubaland President Ahmed Islam Madobe said his administration's election did not require recognition from the federal government, responding to President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud's position that Mogadishu did not recognise Madobe's election.
Hamza's September 26 statement therefore addresses a state whose political leadership is already in a prolonged dispute with the federal centre. His remarks indicate that the federal government intends to move ahead with its electoral framework in Jubaland where it considers voting feasible, while using the single-constituency mechanism where normal polling cannot occur.
The list of districts he cited also shows the practical problem behind the policy. A national election conducted across territory with sharply different security and administrative conditions cannot rely on one polling arrangement everywhere. Hamza's answer is to distinguish between locations where voting can physically be organised and locations where the government says another mechanism must be used.
What the statement clarifies
The interview clarifies the federal executive's position in three respects. First, Jubaland is included in the government's national election planning despite the political dispute with its leadership. Second, normal polling is intended to proceed where conditions permit. Third, the government says the single-constituency mechanism will cover areas where voting cannot be organised in the ordinary way.
The statement does not resolve the political disagreement over who has authority to administer the process, how competing electoral models should be reconciled or whether Jubaland's administration will accept the federal approach. Those questions remain part of the wider national negotiations and constitutional dispute.
For the federal government, the new formulation presents access and security as implementation problems within an existing direct-election framework. For Jubaland and federal opposition actors, the central questions remain the legitimacy, administration and agreed rules of that framework. The September 26 interview therefore adds specificity to the government's plan while leaving the larger political settlement unresolved.
Hamza's own public biography also gives the statement a Jubaland-specific institutional background. The Office of the Prime Minister says he was elected to the House of the People in Kismayo in December 2021 and previously chaired the Jubaland Independent Boundaries and Electoral Commission in 2019-2020. That history does not settle the present dispute, though it places his September remarks within direct experience of Jubaland's electoral institutions.
The operational question will therefore be how the national commission translates the prime minister's distinction into actual electoral administration. The named districts illustrate the tension between a uniform national framework and uneven local conditions. The government's answer is procedural variation inside one national model; Jubaland's political leadership and opposition actors continue to contest the authority and terms under which that model would be implemented.