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.
Hargeisa, Somaliland (Somaliland Globe)- 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 neighbouring 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 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: Somaliland Globe
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