Somaliland MPs Sign a
Parliamentary Motion Calling for a Caretaker
President
Fourteen
MPs signed in advance a parliamentary motion on Monday call ing for
a caretaker president if Somaliland presidential election, which had
been scheduled for 27 September, did not go ahead as planned.
Pressure is mounting on president Dahir Rayale Kahin as a
cross-party group of MPs began to sign a parliamentary motion
calling for the immedia te eviction of the president from office if
he fails to hold the presidential election by 27 September.
The Somaliland Globe has learnt that the motion, which is backed by
parlia mentary heavy weights including Chairman of the National
Security and Internal Affairs Subcommittee,
Saeed Elmi Robleh, Secretary of Standing Committee,
Ahmed Mohamed Diriye and Chairman of
Subcommittee on Hu man Rights and the Law,
Abdirahman Osman Alin, will be tabled on Saturd ay when more
than enough MPs is expected to put their signatures to the motion.
The MPs will have the chance to decide how the country should be run
if the incumbent caretaker government headed by Dahir Rayale Kahin
fails to hold the presidential election by due date.
Rayale’s six-month extension of term of office will subsequently run
out after 27 September.
Somalilanders are becoming increasingly
concerned that their country’s politics might enter a period
of great uncertainty at a time its neigh bouring Somalia
disintegrated into fiefdoms ruled by extremists using the cover of
Islamic religion to advance their hidden agenda. As a result, the
parliament is now preparing itself to have a full debate on ways and
means to install a non-partisan leader as the country’s caretaker
president if the election fails to happen in September.
“We have to realize that human endurance has its limits. The
president cannot simply continue to repeatedly test such limits only
to turn around and tell the people to put up with yet another
postponed election,” said Ahmed Mohamed Diriye,
KULMIYE MP.
“We must not, as MPs, relent in our duty and purpose. We risk losing
our peace and stability if we don’t kill this appalling culture of
repeated presidential term extensions at this infant stage”.
President Rayale had dithered and wavered over the months to
co-operate with the opposition parties in order to find speedy ways
to resolve the challenges and problems that lay ahead to avoid
possible election delays.
Up until now, the government has failed to live up to its promise of
paying 25% of its funding contribution towards the election
expenses; the National Electoral Commission is in chaos as
‘suspected’ UDUB-leaning commissioners made a daring attempt to
dismiss two commissioners from the board on dubious grounds; and a
complete and reliable voter registration list has yet to be
produced.
Few months ago, presidentRayale had rejected to sign a trilateral
agree ment hammered out by an independent Political Conflict
Resolution Commi ttee to enable the nation to have a free,
fair and inclusive election.
MPs who spoke to Somaliland Globe on Monday night are stressing that
it is not a motion of “impeachment” against the president per se but
rather is intended to exert maximum pressure on Rayale to hold the
presidential election as scheduled if enough MPs supported it when
it is debated on Saturday. This will also save the country from
falling into chaos, they added.
It is not clear whether the caretaker president will exercise full
executive powers or not but his main task will be to oversee the
staging of presiden tial election at a mutually agreed
timeline.
Many Somalilanders, both inside and outside the country, believe
that the legitimacy of Dahir Rayale’s presidency has long gone and
people have got no faith in him any longer.
Somaliland Globe
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