Downplaying Somaliland’s Alerts on SSC-Khatumo Haunting Puntland Currently

The SSC-Khatumo committee’s one-year extension proposal sparked new debate and heightened tensions within Puntland State.

The Puntland House of Representatives faced a setback today as it failed to reach a decision on the agenda related to the rejection of the extension of the Parliament term by the Constitutional Court.

This occurs just five days after President Said Abdullahi Deni of Puntland State declared that the contentious one-person, one-vote election system would be replaced by a clan-based voting system on January 8, 2024 in response to growing opposition pressure and elder intervention.

Under the clan-based electoral system, the president is chosen by the 66 Members of Parliament (MPs) who have been chosen by their clan leaders to represent them in the House of Representatives.

Unlike Somaliland Republic, Somalia’s international partners have mixed views on the country’s current clan-based voting system, also known as the 4.5 formula. While some partners support the system as a necessary step towards stability in a country with a complex clan structure, others argue that it is discriminatory and perpetuates inequality.

President Said Abdullahi Deni came under heavy fire on Monday from Ahmed Osman Karaash, the deputy president of the Puntland Regional State, who called him a “dictator.”

The Deputy President wrote on Facebook, “The President has a tendency to be a dictator and does not heed the advice of influential people in the decision-making process; this approach has consistently ended in failure.”

The vice president warned that if President Deni takes unilateral actions that affect the future of the country, he alone should bear the consequences. He urged intellectuals and other Puntland community members to exercise caution.