MOGADISHU (Somaliguardian) – Somalia’s President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo is engaged in mobilization of forces for war against his Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble, the leader of Wadajir opposition party Abdirahman Abdishakur said on Friday, days after reports emerged that the Horn of Africa nation’s most powerful leaders were again at the loggerheads over elections.
It comes a day after the Prime Minister said there were individuals trying to undermine the ongoing electoral process, though he did not mention their names as tensions boil over again following his dismissal of seven members of the Electoral Disputes Resolution Team, citing their bias in decisions taken over a number of disputed parliamentary seats.
“These days, Farmajo is engaged in mobilization of forces and for war against PM Roble. He had ordered an audacious man wearing military stars and stripes to speak, who slandered the Prime Minister,” Wadajir party leader Abdirahman Abdishakur said in a statement posted on Facebook.
“He had organized the [federal] electoral body after opposing a shake-up in the electoral disputes team. That was followed by the parade for armed forces officers and roads closed to call off cabinet meeting.”
Somali president’s office has not immediately commented on the claims, which come days after a new rift between the country’s top leaders surfaced, risking to undermine long-delayed polls scheduled to be completed next year.
It is reported that the President is now hell-bent on withdrawing election and security powers from the PM, just months after he had publicly handed over those responsibilities. According to analysts, there is also a possibility that the President’s team could file land-grabbing charges against the Premier after Navy chief claimed that the PM was building a luxury house on a public land belonging to the coastguard, an assertion later denied by a government official.
In a statement issued on Thursday, opposition leaders welcomed a meeting of the National Consultative Council (NCC) called by the Prime Minister, in an apparent attempt to take sides with Roble and rally their support behind him at this critical moment. They had been averse to his attempts to go ahead with elections weeks earlier and boycotted the ongoing polls, but the new political wrangling seems to have drawn them.
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