Farmaajo’s allies yield to pressure, meet PM Roble as NCC meeting expected today

By T. Roble

GOOBJOOG NEWS|MOGADISHU: Prime Minister Mohamed Roble met Sunday night with three regional presidents allied to outgoing President Mohamed Farmaajo in a first since the two sides went on a warpath at the tail end of 2021 signalling a possibility of a full house meeting today.

South West president Abdiasis Lafta Gareen, Galmudug’s Ahmed Qoorqoor and Ali Gudlawe of HirShabelle held talks with the PM Sunday night after yielding to international pressure to vacate their stances against the PM. Lafta Gareen and Qoorqor had distanced themselves from the National Consultative Council meeting convened by Roble for December 27 and instead said would be attending another called by Farmaajo.

The meeting, Farmaajo had said would deliberate on the new leadership for the electoral process after the PM ‘failed’ to successfully conclude it. However, that was not to happen as the international community led by the US and UK demanded that no parallel meeting would happen.

Roble has on Saturday met with Jubaland’s Ahmed Madobe and his Puntland ally Abdullahi Deni. The two have been in support of the PM. The meeting expected to kick off today since all members are now present will focus on elections security, revision of electoral process, electoral committees, electoral polling places, and electoral timetables.

SOME OF THE CONTENTIOUS ISSUES

The credibility of the ongoing elections has attracted sharp criticism as it has been shrouded in opaqueness and has largely suffered influence from key players such as the FMS presidents and Villa Somalia. The meeting is hoped that it will seek to restore public confidence in the process though the practical aspects of it might be a tall order given the deeply vested interests.

The question of polling stations is also expected to dominate the talks. According to the September 27, 2020 Agreement, voting for Lower House is supposed to take place in two polling centres in each regional state. However, for some regions, implementing that rule has become a headache.

In HirShabelle, Ali Gudlawe has had rocky relations with Hiiraan region where the elections is expected to take place in the district headquarters, Beletweyne. As of Sunday, protests broke out against Gudlawe and his administration in one of the many protests against him since he took office in November 2020.

Farmaajo and Madobe are still feuding about Garbaharey which is one of the two polling stations for Jubaland besides Kismayo. In Puntland, the recent instability as a result of a fall out between President Deni and Puntland Special Forces is yet to ease and might make it difficult for elections to happen there.

Taking these cases into account, the NCC meeting might consider reducing the polling stations per FMS to one; preferably the regional capitals as was the case in 2016/17 round.