PM Roble, leader of the FMS to sign election agreements in Somalia
MOGADISHU, Somalia – After about a week of intense talks on the future of Somalia, Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble will take credit today [Thursday]after a major agreement with several stakeholders on the country’s future and prolonged stalemate before the election.
President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo, whose term expired on February 8, is expected to join other top politicians in Mogadishu later today, where they will sign the agreement that would pave the way for elections in the country that have been delayed for several months.
The real time has not yet been revealed, but former presidents Sharif Sheikh Ahmed and Hassan Sheikh Mohamud are expected to join the rest of the leadership in confirming the deal, which was created by federal states and FGS leaders, including Prime Minister Roble.
With the international community striving for a memorandum of understanding, Farmajo revoked the extension of his term before he was entrusted with the PM with negotiating responsibility. Many opposition leaders apparently seemed to work with Roble rather than Farmaajo.
Despite the preparations for the signing ceremony, a key issue – the electoral leadership of the parliamentarians representing Somaliland, remains unresolved per report. Somalia’s Political Council issued a statement saying it had neither been involved nor consulted to resolve the issue.
The statement from Somalia’s Political Council warned a coalition of lawmakers and senators from northwestern Somalia that they would boycott the outcome of the Mogadishu election process, which could paralyze the agreement.
The Council claimed that their demand for Senate President Abdi Hashi to be responsible for the election of parliamentarians from the northern regions of Somalia had not been met. Therefore, the Council confirmed in advance that they will not accept the outcome of the meeting.
Some reports have shown that the President of the Somali House of Lords, Abdi Hashi, is pleased with the part that the Electoral Commission gave at the Mogadishu conference, but pressure from his confidence could lead to the rejection of the election agreement.
Hashi, the top politician from Somaliland, a region that declared independence in 1991, is fighting for supremacy with Deputy Prime Minister Mahdi Gulaid, who also wants to control the exercise in the breakaway region.
It is expected that the agreement will include the time frame for the election, the names of those who have the mandate to conduct the election among other current issues such as the military’s role in the exercise. The opposition had originally accused Farmajo of planning to rig.
AXADLETM
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