The Political turmoil in Somalia as the Country’s legislative power eliminated by government

[Deeq A.]

(If the parliament were independent and free to exercise their constitutional power, many wrongdoings by the government may possibly monitored regarding the federal constitution and other laws of the country).

 By:  Ahmed Abdullahi Isse.

Somalia like many other countries, the parliament house is the most important government institution mandatory making/changing laws, preparing motions and exercising check and balance power over the two other branches of government (executive and judiciary). As of now, the federal parliament of Somalia has utterly lost its constitutional power and dominated by the executive branch. The vast majority of Somalia Mps are ministers and deputy ministers and state ministers with an intention to dismiss the parliamentarian accountability role over the executive duties, measure to deal when violates laws and mitigate over righting actions by the executive branches.

Check and balance principles                              

The independence of the three branches of government (legislative, executive and judiciary) is fundamental essence of government but does not exist anymore in Somalia and check, balances principles have been eliminated, and the abuse of power is on the surge in Somalia. Check and balances is the essential principle of the government as each branch has some measure of influence over the other branches or exercising some power for blocking other branches if breaks or violates  the constitutional principles. It is clear that the powers of the three branches of government of Somalia are now all under the control by executive branch

The oversight and accountability committee was dissolved recently by the executive branch to create space for the ongoing prevalence corruption in the country, money- laundering and missteps of the executive branch. therefore there has been impressive public accusations raised about the failure of the parliament to perform their constitutional mandatory role misplaced, which is all about holding accountable by government’s duties, limiting and measuring the political power in line with federal constitution and other laws of the country

The purpose of eliminating power of the parliament

The elimination of the (parliament power) was purposely intention to pave the way for the widespread corruption in the country.  abuse of power, and misconduct of duties.  Favor the interest of the government, as well as aimed to completely erase the basic principles of accountability, remove check and balance power to make the country lawless state, and then grip the power in one hand, which has been historically main reason why the last government of Somalia collapsed back in 1991

As well as avoid any political and accountability challenges that may occur from the parliament or elsewhere. If the parliament were free to exercise their constitutional power, many wrongdoings by the government may possibly monitored regarding federal constitution and other laws of the country. The powerful ministers of finance, planning and international cooperation, security and defense, are all both members of parliament and ministers of the government to whom their work mainly lacks to monitor by the parliament

The constitutional defined function of Somali parliament becomes a paralyzed; all the economic and business agreements signed by the government with other foreign countries, agencies, business companies are no longer passes through the parliament. To verify its legal basic and determine whether the agreements is viable to vote YES or NO. and it’s a key principles that measures a good governance index of any country but does not exist now in Somalia.

The executive branch alone goes through the entire procedures until decides the final decision by itself. It was the ultimate reason why the former speaker of the parliament professor Mohamed Osman Jawaari was pushed to resign. After he rejected the emerging government influence into the parliament. jawaari argued to differ the powers as the federal constitution defines, but later replaced with Mohamed Mursal a former defense minister hailed the same clan with Jawaari and too loyal to the president and his team to safeguard the interest of the government.

Federal­ phobia and weakening the power of the states

After occupying the parliament the government, vows to remove the power by the state presidents replaced them with individuals who are loyal to their leadership behaviors and able to work under centralized government, which is completely against the agreed federal system in Somalia. however many believes these attempts is being driven by the emerging federal phobia political view shared by the both president and his prime minister.

As an exemplary actions the government forcedly removed the position by, the president, Ali Abdullahi osoble of hirshabeele state, Sharif Hassan of southwest, Ahmed Geele Xaaf for gal-mudug,  after a massive political turmoil in the country and military crackdowns in some areas lasting more innocent people died and many other injured, the government uses Ethiopian troops in these operations under the coalition of AMISOM to sustain the power in one hand, under single authority of centralized government.

In strong worded letter, dated 28 may. 2019 issued by Puntland suspends its cooperation with federal government in three main areas a) constitutional review process, b) security architecture, and c) electoral process for 2021 national elections after the federal government breaks all the cooperative agreement signed.

The federal phobia has caused intensive domestic political fracture and demolished the imperative cooperation between the federal government and federal member states.

New threat to Somali journalists

Somali journalists/media operating in Mogadishu and around are under constant threat by the government; the government intimidates to arrest whoever neither disagrees or tries to investigate nor speaks out the malpractices of the government. However, independent media are crucial in Somalia as they can play the vacant role left by the Somali parliament as the Somalia parliament was being occupied by the government, this year alone numerous of journalists were physically assaulted and arrested without any legal trail.

Fresh Political Crises in Somalia

Somalia is at the edge of facing fresh political crises as the country stakeholders fails to agree one unified last political agreement to strengthen peace and state building process in the country. promote imperative cooperation among Somalia stakeholders, the Somalis in public includes scholars, academicians, intellectuals, politicians,  civil society organizations  are worried and unpleasant  about the hasty politics of this current government, many believes this probably be  the worst government ever came to power. Nothing has been achieved so far, and almost three years is gone, one year with election crises remaining.

Options to end Somalis current political turmoil

Somalia has entered dangerous political turmoil that may be influenced the significant progress made on peace building and state building efforts throughout the past years. However, there has to be four political agreements to be done before 2020 begins. 1) we must restore back fully the imperative cooperation between the states and federal government and resolve the minor political disagreements through a dialogue 2) agreed kind of electoral model for 2021 elections 3) finalize the provisional federal constitution and 4) to reduce the threats of alshabab by liberating regions under their control.

The post The Political turmoil in Somalia as the Country’s legislative power eliminated by government appeared first on Puntland Post.