The state follows in the footsteps of Puntland in a new split that endangers the political integrity of the African country
Nov. 10 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Somali state of Jubaland, in the south of the country, has announced that it will break relations with the federal government over disputes over the electoral system and the fight against the jihadist organization Al Shabaab.
In a statement published this Sunday by the Ministry of the Interior of Jubaland, the administration denounces that the Somali federal government is obstructing the electoral process by insisting on the holding of local elections by universal suffrage, while local authorities opt for an indirect method, and they also point to Mogadishu for “hindering operations against Al Shabaab in the region” for political purposes.
The announcement comes less than 24 hours after the Somali government accused the state president, Ahmed Sheikh Mohamed Islam, known as Ahmed Madobe, of initiating without permission the procedures to appoint an electoral commission with the aim of starting an election. regional indirect nature.
These indirect elections completely break both the electoral mechanism and the calendar stipulated by the Somali federal government, which had previously agreed with some, but not all, those responsible for the country’s states to hold regional elections in June next year, all of them by universal suffrage, without exception.
The Somali Government, in its statement on Saturday, took the opportunity to remind Madobe that his mandate expired in August last year and that only a special political agreement keeps him in office without the capacity to take initiatives of this type.
The answer came this Sunday twice. First, with the approval in the Jubaland State Parliament of this commission with a view to holding these indirect elections in the coming weeks and, second, with a statement in which it declares “the suspension of the cooperative relationship with the federal Government ” in what Mogadishu has repudiated as an attack on the country’s territorial integrity while demanding that Madobe stick to the consensual election system.
OBSTACLES IN THE FIGHT AGAINST AL SHABAAB
The state government of Jubaland also denounced this past Saturday night that the forces of the Somali National Army have abandoned their positions in a joint operation against the jihadist organization Al Shabaab.
The state Ministry of Security reported that its forces had to carry out a series of offensives alone between November 6 and 9 in the Orgiyow and Bula-Haji areas while “the federal government offered financial incentives to soldiers to to withdraw in order to obtain political benefits,” according to the statement collected by the Mogadishu24 portal.
“This could lead to social displacement and reignite internal conflicts in the Jubaland regions,” the ministry said.
THREAT OF DISINTEGRATION
Jubaland thus becomes the second state to break ties with the federal government this year after, at the end of March, the Puntland authorities announced that they were withdrawing their recognition of the central authorities after protesting against a series of constitutional amendments that expand the presidential powers and that the Puntland authorities understood as a very serious threat to the political structure of the country.
The amendments granted the current head of state, Hasan Sheikh Mohamud, the ability to appoint or dismiss the prime minister, something that Puntland understands as a centralizing drive aimed ultimately at wresting powers from the country’s states.
In fact, the Puntland authorities were also absent from the consultative electoral meeting boycotted by the president of Jubaland in protest against the decision to hold direct local elections.
The situation has reached such a point that the country’s Prime Minister, Hamza Ali Barre, has canceled a planned trip to Qatar, according to the Somali Gate portal, to try to channel the crisis.
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