Five more candidates were elected today to seats in the House of the People in Banaadir region and HirShabelle state in the latest round of voting.

In Banaadir, Fahma Ahmed Nuur, a former Deputy Minister of Justice, and Jaylani Noor Ikar, a former First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, were elected members of parliament (MPs) on Sunday to represent the Banaadiri clans of Bandhaboo and Al Shasni, respectively.

That brought the number of candidates elected to the House of the People from the Banaadir region – which encompasses all of Mogadishu -- to four, with only two seats remaining to be decided.

Ms. Nuur garnered all of the delegates’ 51 votes for a seat contested only by women. The election won by Mr. Ikar was a tight race, however, as he defeated his opponent Abdi-Aziz Osman Mohamed by a margin of five votes.

Speaking moments after he was declared the winner, Mr. Ikar said the 2016 electoral process provided proof that Somalia can achieve a one-person, one-vote election in the future.

“I want to tell the people who thought that elections could not take place in Somalia that the exercise has taken place in a peaceful manner, and we will easily move to one-man, one-vote,” noted the MP-elect.

Ms. Nuur became the first woman to be elected to the House of the People from the Banaadir region and attributed her victory to the trust her clan feels towards her.

“I am one of the people who fought for the women quota right from 2000, and I am happy because we may achieve the 30 percent quota for women representation or achieve something close to that figure,” she said. “My community had trust in me and has continued to trust me this time with a majority vote.”

In Jowhar, three winning candidates were Khalif Abdi Omar, Abdikadir Arabow Ibrahim and Mohamud Abdirahman, all of whom were seeking a seat in parliament for the first time.

Federal Indirect Electoral Implementation Team (FIEIT) member Amina Abdullahi Derow described the elections in HirShabelle as free and fair, adding that only three of the 38 seats in the House of the People assigned to the state remain to be filled.

Ten women MPs have been elected thus far from HirShabelle, giving the state the highest share of women who have won seats nationwide with 29 per cent to date.

Mr. Omar vowed to serve his country as a lawmaker to ensure that peace and stability are restored.

“I am happy and nervous, happy that I won the parliamentary seat, nervous that it is a big responsibility,” said the MP-elect. “I ask my community to work with me, let us work together, advise each other and develop together.”

Mr. Ibrahim also thanked the delegates for choosing him to represent HirShabelle state in parliament.

“I hope this marks the beginning of progress and development. My priority would be on education,” he added.

The Police Coordinator of Operations for the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), Emmanuel Mukama, noted that the initial two days of voting in Mogadishu had been held peacefully and pledged that AMISOM would continue to secure the electoral process.