The real position of the government in the raging debate brought by the proposal by a group of business people to have the Somaliland Presidential elections and the political organisations elections be held simultaneously continued to be shifty after the Attorney General Abdisamad Omar Maal declared that the two elections should not be held at the same time.
This came just a day after President Muse Bihi confirmed he was privy to the proposal despite not making his position known.
President Muse Bihi Abdi had earlier this week meeting members of the business community involved in unlocking the impasse between the government and the opposition parties.
However the president did not divulge any information from their meeting nor did he commit to support the proposal by the business people to have the presidential and the political organization elections be held at the same time.
The president seemed to contradict his deputy Security Minister Abdillahi Hussein Mohamed, who had on Tuesday dismissed the proposals and accused the mediating committee of working for the opposition.
The president spoke when he presided the Hargeisa University graduation ceremony.
But on Thursday, the Attorney General , in an interview with the state run media in Hargeisa pointed out that the presidential elections and political organizations in Somaliland cannot be reconciled technically and legally.
“The question of whether presidential and political associations elections cannot reconcile technically and legally, because one has to happen first,” said the Attorney General of Somaliland.
The AG’s remarks are bound to escalate the political tension in the country brought about by the government’s non committal stance to have the presidential elections held in November this year.
Opposition parties have insisted that presidential elections should be held in November ahead of the political organisation elections.
There have previously been national protests against the government’s failure to commit to hold the elections.
But the opposition has shown conciliatory move by welcoming the proposal by the group of business people who have taken by themselves to mediate over the impasse.
The business people whose investment in the internationally recognised nation has continued to propel its economy are worried at the continued political tension in the country occasioned by the government’s failure to commit to holding presidential elections in November 2022.
