Afyare Vouches for the ‘Duopoly’ Theory

Mogadishu (PP News Desk) — The Director of Heritage Institute for Policy Studies Dr Afyare Elmi told Al Jazeera that rotation of the presidency was a norm in Somalia that President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed had failed to uphold.

“The root cause is that every four years Somalia often has some sort of rotation of power that has not happened under the leadership of the President” Afyare said.

Afyare has unwittingly defended the duopoly theory of Somali politics advanced by Professor Ahmed Samatar.

Dr Afyare was commenting on the upsurge of violence in Mogadishu following a controversial mandate extension for the federal institutions. Somali Presidential Candidates have not denounced armed clan militias that briefly took over some neighbourhoods in Kaaraan and Hodan districts in Mogadishu yesterday.

Professor Ahmed Ismail Samatar, James Wallace Professor of International Studies & Chair of Global political economy at Macalester College, has argued that Somalia’s presidency rotates between two clans — Darod and Hawiye.

“I did not expect that Dr Afyare Elmi would defend the duopoly theory. Somalia does not belong only to two clans. We must break this pattern responsible for the Somali political turmoil” said Mohamud Aliyow, a civil society activist in Baidoa.

© Puntland Post, 2021