What started out as a healthy political debate over changes to the Somaliland region's House of Representatives has turned into a protracted, antagonistic dispute between opposing sides, causing a suspension of parliament activity until next Sunday (February 16th).
The row started January 27th when the House passed a bill that made changes to the parliament's bylaws for the first time since 2005.
The bill, among other changes, weakened the power of the two deputy speakers by reducing the number of votes needed to unseat them from 55 to 42, while retaining the two-thirds majority needed to remove the speaker.
The new bill also mandated that the deputy speakers sit at a lower level than the speaker and eliminated the three leaders' shared title of Assembly Chairing Committee.
The changes to the bylaws and new style of leadership were efforts to be in-step with the laws of other parliaments around the world, said lawmaker Ibrahim Mahdi Buba, chairman of the permanent sub-committee of the lower house.
Although these changes were accepted by a majority of lawmakers, with only eight representatives in opposition according to Buba, another motion, which proposed additional changes to the bylaws, sparked fury in the legislative chamber when it was presented on Sunday (February 9th).
The motion, which was supported by more than 50 representatives from Somaliland President Ahmed Mohamed Silanyo's Kulmiye party, proposed to reduce the number of votes necessary to remove all three speakers to 42.
When the motion was presented it caused a huge commotion in the chamber, leading to a physical confrontation between a number of representatives. The police eventually had to intervene in the scuffle and restore order.
'Illegal' interference in parliament affairs
Speaker Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi, who is also the leader of the Waddani opposition party, accused the Silanyo administration of directly interfering in parliament's affairs and violating the independence of the three branches of government.
According to Buba, who is also a member of Waddani party, representatives from the ruling party were called to meet at the vice president's residence last week to prepare the motion. Vice President Abdirahman Abdullahi Saylii and six ministers, including the minister of presidency, were in attendance, he said.
"While I have been the head of the parliament [since 2005], this is the first time in history when a minister has called parliamentarians to a house or restaurant and made them sign a motion he is leading," Abdullahi said on Sunday at a press conference in his office.
"[The government] did everything it could to implement its agenda. That is interference and is illegal," Buba said.
Silanyo and his Minister of Presidency Hirsi Ali Haji Hassan have not commented specifically on the accusations or the disagreements in parliament.
Addressing reporters at Hargeisa Airport on Saturday Silanyo simply said, "The government has a job to do and the parliament has a job to do. The government is ready to do its work."
The Justice and Welfare Party (UCID) and Waddani, as well as the Council of Consultation and Guidance, which is an alliance of independent opposition politicians, also accused the government of being behind the chaos in parliament.
The government even interfered by bribing representatives so that it can achieve its goals in parliament, Buba said.
"[The government's] intention is to hinder the parliament from meeting its job responsibility of monitoring the government and keeping it accountable," he told Sabahi. "They also want to remove the speaker from his post whom they think will bring a good reputation to the party he leads if he performs well in parliament and will thus be a danger to the [the ruling party] during the election."
The motion to reduce the number of votes required to remove the speaker paves the way to easily unseat him, said Mohamed Omer Abdi, editor of the independent newspaper Jamhuuriya.
Since 2005, this is the first time a conflict in parliament has gone this far, he told Sabahi.
"Even though the motion was forwarded by members who are supportive of the government, the representatives from Waddani who support the speaker have threatened to bring a motion that is against the president," Abdi said. "That is one of the things that made the conflict worse."
If the issue is not resolved quickly, it could lead to internal instability, Abdi said.
"It is possible that residents of different regions will support the opposing sides and the conflict could reach a tribal level," he said. "Since the security of the country is fragile, there is a big fear of this conflict going beyond parliament and the administration, and going down to divide the public."
Local media reported earlier this week that youths supporting the speaker protested in parts of Hargeisa, and a number of individuals belonging to the speaker's clan were arrested and later released.
Efforts to resolve the conflict
A delegation from the House of Elders, the upper house of parliament, requested a week-long recess so that a solution can be reached.
The team was led by chairman of the permanent sub-committee of the upper house and oldest traditional elder in Somaliland Haji Abdikarim Hussein Yusuf, also known as Abdi Waraabe, and included the chairman of the Academy for Peace and Development Abdirahman Aw Ali Farah.
"We are asking the parliament to take a seven day recess so that we can resolve any conflicts and for the parliament to work in unison," said Abdi Waraabe, who addressed the lower house and warned of the consequences this political discord could lead to.
Members of the two opposing sides who attended the assembly accepted the recess, Abdullahi told Sabahi, adding that he is ready to reconcile any differences for the sake of Somaliland's political stability.
"The two sides have accepted the delegation, but they asked us to give them an opportunity to talk to each other … and the task is at a good place now and I do not want to pre-empt it," Deputy Speaker of the House of Elders Said Jama Ali, a member of the 14-member reconciliation delegation, told the press after they met at the parliament building on Tuesday.
The committees from the two sides formally began talks on Wednesday, said Buba, who is also a member of the delegation.
Autor: Barkhad Dahir
Source/Fuente: http://sabahionline.com/en_GB/articles/hoa/articles/features/2014/02/13/...
