Continuing on its audacious careen towards another inevitable, costly showdown with the Republic of Somaliland, the Somalia regional presidents again ignore the 30-year existence of the republic allotting 21% of over 275 MPs of the federal parliament to mercenaries rounded up from Mogadishu, Garowe, and Bossasso in the upcoming 20/21 elections.
The regional lords of Jubaland, Galmudug, Puntland, Hirshabelle and Southwest, along with a newly solemnized Banadir, decided that Somaliland needed representation in a system that it had never been a party to, was not a signatory in its constitution, never participated in over 20 conferences leading to the present setup and had never even shown the slightest interest in over 29 years.
Make-belief Representation
Out of the goodness of their hearts, the regional heads, led by the federal leader at Villa Somalia, Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo, concluded that 58 was, indeed, a generous number to represent – what they called – the Issaq (28), Samaroon (9), Issa (8), Musa Dheriyo (1), Warsangeli (4) and Dhulbahante (8) in their 275-member parliament.
The nearest big city to Mogadishu for above 4 Somaliland clans to Mogadishu is Burao some 1,071.82 kilometers at its most direct route through the Somali region in Ethiopia.
The only reason behind the illogical insistence of Mogadishu to continue on this farce, it had often been pointed out, is for incumbent Villa Somalia governments to use the illegitimate Somaliland numbers against other legitimate, Somalia clans in the parliament and especially when it came to sensitive motions against it.
They said Warsangeli would be selected from Bossasso while the Dhulbahante would be nominated from Garowe. It is noteworthy that neither cities in the Puntland Federal State are home to the said clans. Their regions fall well within the Republic of Somaliland where they have a far better representation in much small-numbered houses on 1P-1V open elections.
Las Anod, regional capital of Sool is 923.76 km distant from Mogadishu by road where Badhan is 1,393.69 kilometers.
Puntland, founded in 1998, laid claim to large areas in the Sool and Sanaag regions with whose residents it shared ethnic lineage regardless of the political history of the areas since time immemorial or with whom they shared boundaries since 1884.
The Issaqs, according to a communique the conferees released on 17 September, Samaroon, Musa Dheriyo and Issa so-called MPs will be gathered from Mogadishu streets where the selection will also be made behind a closed, heavily guarded small rooms.
In all, Southwest (Baidoa) with 69 seats has much more MPs than the sovereign country which tactlessly merged with glutinous Somalia in 1960 – even at this late stage reflecting 60 years later how inconsequential Somaliland is to the warped psyche of a self-important Somalia. Jubaland with 43 seats is not far behind so-called Somaliland’s. Puntland and Galmudug each bag 37 while Hirshabelle gets 38 and Benadir 5.
The Somalia selection of MPs will be conducted by committees to be jointly nominated by the Somalia federal member states and Villa Somalia thus sidelining the Somalia electoral body.
The latest meeting among the FGS and FMS made it known on Thursday that the main events of the election deal they reached will be conducted as below:
-
-
- Upper house MPs will be ‘elected’ (selected) from 1st to 10 December 2020
- Lower House MPs will be ‘elected’ (selected) from 10 to 27 December 2020
- House speakers and President – 1st January to 8th February 2021
-
Following the release of the 17 September Somalia Communique on its elections deal in which they included Somaliland, the Republic of Somaliland officially wrote to the United Nations, the US, the AU, and the rest of the Somaliland/Somalia international partners that the brazen claims of Somalia over Somaliland must stop.
“The government of the Republic of Somaliland wishes to the United Nations, the African Union, the European Union and the international community that the Republic of Somaliland is a sovereign nation which is no way associated with or part of the electoral process of fragile Somalia,” a statement which the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation released said.
Equally, Somaliland told Somalia to desist from its continued, baseless assertions that encroach on the sovereignty and integrity of the 30-year-old republic.
“The Republic of Somaliland cautions the administration and politicians of Somalia to desist from false, face-saving sovereignty claims over Somaliland aiming to hoodwink/misinform the international community,” the MoFAIC statement said.
Preparing for its seventh and eighth 1P-1V elections, the Republic of Somaliland National Electoral Commission conducted a mock voter registration on 2 September at Oodweyne and Balligubadle. The registration was using the biometric, iris-recognizing novel system with which the last presidential election in 2017 was conducted.2020.
Somaliland – although it has yet to directly confront the international partners with it – believes that without the tacit financial, political and moral support of the international community, Somalia would not have dared embark on a self-destructive course which rekindles the pain of costly war with the Somalia-dominated, military regime of Siyad Barre in the 80s. The deposal of the military strongman in 1991 led to the reclamation of Somaliland sovereignty on 18 May 1991. Since then, Somaliland went on to build a modern, ultra-democratic functioning state which is far better than Somalia and its Villa Somalia administration.
Organizations such as the political office of the UN in ‘Somalia’ – UNSOM, openly encourage Mogadishu to select Somaliland mercenaries in its government and parliament whose sole objective is to sabotage the sovereignty, development, and security of Somaliland.
Most Somalilanders are quite disappointed with the double-standards of the so-called international partners and their unabashed denigration of the very tenets of all international instruments on self-determination of peoples and human rights, including that of the United Nations itself.
If, again, UNSOM supports this election roadmap which Federal Farmajo, Puntland’s Deni, Qoorqoor of Galmudug, Waare of Hirshabelle, Laftagareen of Southwest, and Ahmed Madoobe of Jubaland decided in Mogadishu, not stopping in time before the January timetable, then, neither the UN nor the EU, the UK or the AU would have the legitimacy to talk with Somaliland on democracy or human rights issues – ever.
That is the position of the people of Somaliland.
The rest of the seat layout of the Somalia MPs is as shown below:
By Suleiman Abdurahim
suleiman.abdurahim@gmail.com
