Garowe (PP Information Desk) — The federal government of Puntland State of Somalia is going through a legitimacy disaster per week after Sool, Sanaag, Cayn and Khaatumo (SSCK) was granted federal member standing. This new improvement has reinvigorated the Puntland Political Discussion board (PPF), an opposition group that beforehand performed a key function in returning Puntland to the “66 mannequin” electoral course of in 2024.
PPF has now known as for a grand convention to arrange Puntland for the “second part” of state-building and congratulated SSCK on its new standing throughout the federal framework of the Federal Republic of Somalia.
PPF rejected the 2023 modification to the Puntland Structure, which mandated political events. The 2024 Puntland State presidential elections additional delayed the multi-party system envisioned by Puntland President Mentioned Abdullahi Deni, within the absence of consensus throughout political stakeholders.
“Puntland Political Discussion board foresaw that the Laascaanood battle would reshape Puntland State as we all know it, however President Deni adopted a wait-and-see method, till the Federal Authorities of Somalia executed a shock political transfer that left President Deni with restricted choices for negotiations on the course of Somalia past 2026,” stated a senior PPF member.
Mohamud Shiddo, a senior politician in Puntland, echoed the views of the PPF. “SSCK is now a federal member state,” Shiddo stated in an upcoming interview highlighting the urgent political challenges going through Puntland stakeholders.
The SSCK MPs in Puntland Parliament
PPF has lengthy criticised the participation of SSCK MPs in Puntland’s controversial constitutional amendments. Shiddo acknowledged that lots of those that chosen Deni as president in 2024 have been chosen illegally. Based on him, the 17 MPs from SSCK have been handpicked by Deni. In December 2023 the SSCK administration elders had declared that they might not appoint representatives to the 2024 Puntland State Parliament.
“Their [(MPs’)] positions in Puntland’s political system are untenable. SSCK is now not a part of Puntland State of Somalia. Subsequently, the 1998 Constitution on which Puntland was based is now defunct,” stated a researcher based mostly in Garowe.
The top of SSCK illustration within the Puntland Parliament has added extra political strain on President Deni, whose administration has been unable to operationalise the political events that emerged following the 2021 and 2023 native authorities elections.
President Deni was elected underneath the 66 mannequin in 2019. His critics argue that he can’t change the political system or transition Puntland to a multi-party system with out a clear course of. He has not been in a position to counter accusations that his management of Puntland’s funds, mixed with the absence of an unbiased judiciary, legislature, and Auditor Basic, undermines the democratisation course of in Puntland State of Somalia.
One 12 months has handed since President Deni was re-elected for a five-year time period underneath the tradition-bound 66 system. Puntland State reduce ties with the Federal Authorities of Somalia in 2023.
Questions at the moment are being raised in regards to the nature of UAE-Puntland relations and the dangers posed by foreign-funded safety forces to the peaceable coexistence of communities in Puntland. The Economist newspaper this week described Puntland as a republic that had seceded from Somalia. The Puntland State Presidency has not refuted the declare made by the London-based weekly.
© Puntland Put up, 2025
