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Fourteen MPs signed in
advance a parliamentary motion on Monday calling for a caretaker
president if Somaliland presidential election, which had been scheduled
for 27 September, did not go ahead as planned.
Hargeysa, Somaliland, June 27,
2009 – Pressure is mounting on president Dahir Rayale Kahin as a
cross-party group of MPs began to sign a parliamentary motion calling
for the immediate 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
parliamentary heavyweights 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
Human Rights and the Law, Abdirahman Osman Alin, will be tabled on
Saturday 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
neighboring 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, president Rayale had rejected to sign a trilateral
agreement hammered out by an independent Political Conflict Resolution
Committee 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 presidential 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.
Source: The Somaliland Globe, June 23, 2009
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