Somaliland Constitutional court today issued its verdict in the long-running case involving top UCID officials’ leadership dispute.
Top UCID officials were present including the Chairman of the party Eng. Feisal Ali Waraabe and the party’s Presidential Hopeful Honourable Jamal Ali Hussein.
Dr. Adan Haji Ali Ahmed, the chairman of the Constitutional court of the Republic of Somaliland read the verdict in front of a packed courtroom.
He stated as follows:
- The Justice and Welfare party (UCID) officials should convene an extraordinary party convention with 60 days starting from today.
- The delegates taking part in the convention should be selected in accordance with the party’s laws.
- The sides should select 10 members tasked with organizing the party’s and they shall be working with the leadership of the party, the 10 members are to be selected equally from both sides.
- In accordance with Article 7 of the constitution, the Court endorses section 4, 5, 6 and 7 of Political Parties’ Registration and Verification Committee – PPR&VC verdict, the agreement the two sides previously reached must be submitted to the General Assembly for deliberation/endorsement.
- Final decision rests with top executive body of the Party.
The Constitutional court verdict is similar to the one issued by the Political Parties’ Registration and Verification Committee – PPR&VC nearly two months ago.
Following the Court ruling, the two sides spoke to the media each with its interpretation of the outcome, each claiming victory. A contentious point was that which asked the sides to put the agreement they reached before to the Assembly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coBv2YOjhBg
Faisal’s side agrees with the ruling stating that the Assembly can either endorse it as a whole, change content or reject it altogether. They say it is entirely upto the delegates.
Jamal and his supporters believe that the Court ruled that the agreement was to be submitted to the GA for endorsement. Period.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdUO69IeRMQ
It is not yet known whether the Chief Justice may follow up the full-bench CC ruling with a clarification statement or not. If that does not happen before a Party GA is convened, it will be up to the delegates to vote on the issue – either way.
Somalilandpress/Somtribune
