A Somali Presidential Candidate Questions the Legitimacy of the Federal Government

Mogadishu (PP News Desk) — Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, the Somali Presidential Candidate, has described the Federal Government of Somalia as an entity clinging on to power despite the end of President’s term of office. “It is not clear by now who will lead this country”
Sharif said.

In a statement on the end of the Somali President’s term of office without an electoral agreement, Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, a former President, said that no effort had been made to prepare Somalia for elections.

Sharif Sheikh Ahmed: “Security forces and the Army should not follow instructions of the Somali Government”.

The assessment of the former Somali President fails to take into account the now-abrogated Electoral Law, and summits held in Dhuusamareeb to prepare Somalia for elections.

Somali politics had come a long way since January 2009, when Sharif was elected a President of the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia. Sharif urged MPs to work towards facilitating a deal on the election, not a term extension.

“The Alliance of Presidential Candidates of which Sharif Sheikh Ahmed is a member expected the failure to reach an electoral deal would turn them into stakeholders on par with Federal Member States. Sharif jumped the gun although he knows that the Federal Government had not engineered the deadlock on the electoral agreement” said Abdullahi Ali, a Mogadishu-based political commentator.

Sharif Sheikh Ahmed urged Somali security forces and army not follow instructions of a government “whose term of office has come to an end.”

© Puntland Post, 2021