Garoowe (PP Editorial) — Puntland State will soon conduct local government elections. It is quite encouraging that opposition politicians in principle support the move to elect district councillors.
More than 400,000 potential voters have registered with Transitional Puntland Electoral Commission. What the opposition politicians question is the motive of the incumbent President Said Abdullahi Deni, whom they accuse of seeking an unwarranted term extension. Such reservation is admirable in the state-building initiatives. However, it has to be voiced within the existing political associations.
There are a couple of issues that the incumbent Puntland State Government ought to clarify. Puntland Government should publish on the decentralisation goals embedded in the democratisation process. Voters expect that the outcome of local government elections will result in budgetary decentralisation for districts aided by independent judiciary and auditing regime. The political class of Puntland State must rise to the occasion to agree not only electoral modalities but also a complete overhaul of the moribund political system that grant excessive powers to the executive branch.
The justification for increasing the number of the constitutionally mandate political parties will make sense if it is supplemented by genuine transformation based on political accountability. Political and economic stagnation in Puntland stem from the contradiction between ardently advocating a federal system at the national level but a defending a very centralised system at the federal member state level.
If the political playing field is perceived not to be level — the current system is rigged against citizens’ interests — the potential for instability grows. The status quo cannot be maintained by appealing to political stability in Puntland. The youth bulge in Puntland necessitates the introduction of politics based on the rule of law. Puntland political reform based on a new social contract to weed out political impunity and rampant corruption is long overdue.
The current political system benefits political cartels that monetise their access to the public office. Puntland opposition movements seem indifferent to the plight of citizens. Possible term extension for the incumbent Puntland President is not as a pressing political problem as the very system that produce politically unaccountable politicians. The decentralisation agenda cannot succeed if the opposition movements only emphasise presidential election based on the current system to take place in January 202; opposition politicians will have given President Deni the opportunity to claim a higher moral ground to advocate a bottom-up approach to governance.
© Puntland Post, 2023