So­ma­li­a’s elec­toral com­mit­tee said prepa­ra­tions for Wednes­day’s pres­i­den­tial polls which has been post­poned four times, are com­plete and the elec­tion will take place as sched­uled.

Chair­per­son of the 17-mem­ber Pres­i­den­tial Elec­tion Com­mit­tee Ab­di­rah­man Beileh said on Sun­day night the elec­tions will take place on Feb. 8 and gave an un­der­tak­ing that the elec­tions will be free and fair.

“The pres­i­dent is elected by the pub­lic and so we are rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the pub­lic. We are lis­ten­ing to them, we have given a com­mit­ment that we will do our best, to se­lect the best on their be­half,” Beileh said in a state­ment is­sued in Mo­gadishu.

“I want to as­sure the So­mali peo­ple that we will be true to our com­mit­ment to our coun­try, our com­mit­ment to them and the na­tion in gen­eral, that we will do our best to se­lect the best in the group,” he said.

The Wednes­day’s elec­tions will draw cur­tains on an elec­toral process that be­gan in Oc­to­ber 2016 af­ter months of de­lay in a tor­tu­ous process.

So­ma­li­a’s newly in­au­gu­rated Par­lia­ment com­pris­ing of 275 lower house seats and 54-mem­ber sen­ate will vote for the pres­i­dent in a se­cret bal­lot.

The newly elected pres­i­dent will be in­stalled im­me­di­ately af­ter the an­nounce­ment of the fi­nal re­sults.

Beileh said strict pro­ce­dures on bal­lot­ing have also been put in place, to min­i­mize risks of rig­ging. Beileh said to avoid in­ci­dences of bal­lot stuff­ing, the bal­lot pa­pers will be printed in­side the vot­ing hall, shortly be­fore the on­set of bal­lot­ing.

“We planned tak­ing into con­sid­er­a­tion all fac­tors that can be ex­pected and there­fore we have no rea­son to doubt that on the eighth, to­ward the end of day, we will have a pres­i­dent,” he said.

Some 23 pres­i­den­tial can­di­dates are eye­ing the hotly con­tested seat, as the elec­tion com­mit­tee puts in place strict rules to gov­ern the process and en­sure trans­parency. One of the can­di­dates pulled out on Sun­day, cit­ing a crowded process.

“Every­body is de­ter­mined that this process is car­ried out in a man­ner in line with the in­ter­na­tional rules and reg­u­la­tions. It will be cred­i­ble, it will be trans­par­ent. I have ab­solutely no rea­son to be­lieve oth­er­wise,” Beileh said.