By Fowzi Kamal

According to Wikipedia Encyclopedia In government, Bicameralism (bi + Latin camera, chamber) is the practice of having two legislative or parliamentary chambers. Thus, a bicameral parliament or bicameral legislature is a legislature which consists of two chambers or houses. Bicameralism is an essential and defining feature of the classical notion of mixed government. Bicameral legislatures tend to require that a concurrent majority to pass legislation.

May 18, 1991 after they withdrew from the failed union with Southern Somalia, the people of Somaliland have chosen a parliament comprises of two chambers namely The Council of Elders (The Guurti) and the legislature or the Parliament.

The two chambers of Guurti and the parliament is one the three branches of government, namely, the executive, the parliament, and the judiciary. The current Somaliland Parliament was elected in September of 2005 and comprises of (82) eighty two members, as such the only legal entity that represents the entire constituencies of the Somaliland. On the other hand, although the current House of Elder’s term started in 1997 with the Grand Conference of the Somaliland Communities, the House, as an institution goes back to 1993 and before the mid 1980’s during the struggle against the Siyad Barre dictatorship. The procedures for the indirect (or direct) election of the House of Elders was previously came to public discourse on numerous occasions. Unfortunately, the current House of Elders, rather quietly and controversially extended its term of office on the proposal of the President for additional four years from October 2006 and till today, the House of Guurti functions as an unelected body and at the behest of clans who determine the members that would represent the clans at the chamber. On March 13, 2009 at the request of the president, the House of GUURTI passed a resolution to extend second time the term of the president until October, 29, 2009. Without delay, The National Election Commission (NEC) without consultation with three political parties endorsed the Guurti resolution and set the date for second presidential election on September, 29, 2009. Thus, according to Somaliland constitution unlawful and does not have the right legal authority in place to extend the term of the president, accordingly, and with all intended purposes renders the second presidential extension of past March illegal and none binding.

Although the president was elected through a popular vote and with one of the narrowest margins in the annals of modern elections in Africa, does not have the sole right to govern or rule as he pleases. The constitution defines the duties, obligations and the rights of each branches of government. Accordingly, no branch of government whether the Executive, the Legislative or the Judiciary is above the law and per se has any right to contravene the constitution of the land. Inherently, the parliament has the sole responsibility of enacting laws that administers the country and the executive branch has an obligation to sign into laws and it is subsequent execution.

With all its limitations the Somaliland Constitution is simply the only constitution that is currently available, nevertheless, when it was passed along with the referendum in 2003 to withdraw from the union with Somalia, various stakeholders in Somaliland did not paid that much attention and stressed the need to hold the referendum. But in hindsight should have appointed a panel of constitutional lawyers to make a critical review to reconcile any contradiction in its interpretation. Thus, it can fairly be stated that the Somaliland constitution as its present form is rather incomplete and required an assortment of amendments. Since the election of Somaliland parliament six years ago the president did not sign into law any major or important legislation. From the outset, it could be concluded that the executive branch is incompetent and failed to discharge its national obligations to present to the nation a viable constitution that encompasses all aspects of authority and administration, and by signing into law various bills that was passed by the parliament that either added or omitted conflicting articles from the constitution and replaced them with amendments that clearly define articles and sub-articles in order to remove confusion in the interpretation of the constitution. It is absolutely unlawful for the executive branch to put aside numerous bills enacted by the Parliament without genuine justification since 2003. As we have witnessed recently in Somaliland. If the president had signed into the law a number of bills passed by the parliament while in office, the current constitutional crisis in Somaliland would have been avoided and the second presidential election would have been held in time.

Somaliland Parliament as the other only organ of the government that is constitutionally elected by the people through the ballot box and the single law making body in Somaliland that directly represents the people and deserves an equal status of that of the president and the Judiciary. In light of the above, the security of the parliamentarians must be ensured by the government through the various law enforcement agencies. A special police force has to be assigned to the parliament that takes orders only from the chairman and its two deputies. The constitution dictates that national security forces to be neutral if any disagreements arise among the three branches of government and follow the law according to the principle of separation of powers and the executive branch headed by the president must abide by it as delineated in the Somaliland Constitution and refrain from intervening the parliament sessions. It is in contravention of the law to send security personnel and special police forces that takes orders only from the president to disrupt the routine working sessions of the parliament.

The Voter Registration Law was first passed in 2007 by the parliament and was implemented by Presidential Decree No: 207 of 08/07/20. In order to move ahead with the democratization process and pave the road for the second presidential election with the new biometric system implemented by Interpeace with substantial money spent to ensure free and fair elections in order to limit rigging and stuffing fraudulent election papers into the ballet boxes. Henceforth, the president or the (NEC) National Election Commission cannot unilaterally or bilaterally repeal voter registration laws passed by the parliament and disregard his own presidential decree and declare the completed voter registration as flawed.

On April 29, 2009 Somaliland government and the opposition political parties accepted the 5 point recommendations put forward by the Mediation Committee to resolve the issues relating to finalizing the postponement of presidential elections to September, 27 2009 before the national press. Although President Dahir Riyale declined to sign along with the KULMIYE Party Chairman Ahmed Mohamed Mohamoud (Sillanyo) and UCID Party Chairman Faisal Ali Hussein (Waraabe) and send UDUB party secretary Jama Yassin, nevertheless, the two opposition political party leaders welcomed recommendations and agreed upon it and was hailed as one more testament to Somaliland's endeavor to complete its democratization process and resolve their differences with consultations and negotiations.

On September 8, 2009 for the second time within two weeks and after 39 members of the opposition KULMIYE and UCID parties tabled a motion to impeach the president for dereliction of his national duties. the ruling UDUB Party members of parliament lost self-control as usual in anticipation of the event that the parliament would impeach the president, succeeded to bring the house proceedings to a complete halt. The Interior minister hen under orders from the president ordered the police and the military forces to storm the Somaliland parliament building with the aim to expel the members and close its doors which compelled the House Speaker and his two deputies to take refuge in his office.

n conclusion, Somaliland Parliament has to execute its national obligations with no trepidation and free from any meddling by the president. Any member or group has the rig ht to table any motion and the house leaders are bound the take a roll call either to pass or defeat the motion. The president has shown his true colors and clearly told the people that with the security forces he would be staying any means necessary. The president is using UDUB members of the parliament to create chaos and disorder inside the parliament as a last resort to provoke the opposition parties and their supporters in order to declare state of emergency in Somaliland to extend his tem without elections.

The parliament as an elected institution must be cognizant the fact that they are responsible as much as the Guurti and the president to preserve the sovereignty and the independence of Somaliland and its sustained peace and stability.

References:

Wikipedia Encyclopedia.

Somaliland Law.

Somaliland Parliament proceedings 2009.

House Elders (Guurti) proceedings.2009

Horn Cable Television, June, 2009

BBC Somali Service. News, and interviews

Voice of America Somali Service. News and interviews

Radio Horyaal,

Author’s Email: fowzi2005@hotmail.com

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