Somalia leaders fail to break deadlock over presidential vote

President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed flew back to the capital Mogadishu without a deal on the staffing of regional electoral commissions, Osman Dube, the information minister, said late on Friday. 

“No agreement was reached,” the minister said. 

Mohamed told lawmakers in Somalia’s lower house on Saturday that there was still one more chance for a deal, without elaborating. 

“If it fails again, then the decision (on the way forward) will be for the parliament,” he told a sitting, which was boycotted by senators. 

Abdi Hashi, speaker of the upper house, the senate, is one of the president’s key opponents. He was not immediately available for comment. 

Somalia, which has had only limited central government since 1991, is trying to rebuild with the help of the United Nations. 

It had initially aimed to hold its first direct election in more than three decades this year but delays in preparations, and the government’s inability to rein in daily attacks by al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab insurgents, meant switching to an indirect vote, with elders picking lawmakers who would choose a president. 

Now even that plan is in tatters. 

Regional authorities in at least two of Somalia’s five federal states, Puntland and Jubbaland, oppose holding the election for now. National and regional forces have clashed in Jubbaland. 

One sticking point in this week’s three-day crunch talks held in the central town of Dhusamareb, was control of Gedo, an area of Jubbaland where President Mohamed’s forces have been battling their regional counterparts for control. 

“President Faarmajo insists he will rule Gedo region and hold its election,” said Ahmed Mohamed Islam Madobe, Jubbaland’s president, using President Mohamed’s informal name. 

While the constitution sets out four-year mandates for the presidency, an extension of the government’s term by parliament is legally allowed by precedent, though analysts warn that the move is politically fraught. 

“If the main politicians don’t agree, there is still going to be a massive problem,,” said Omar Mahmood, senior analyst for Somalia at international think-tank International Crisis Group.