Under pressure Farmajo agrees to attend Dhusamareb conference

MOGADISHU, Somalia - Despite earlier indications that Somalia President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo was after all not interested in Dhusamareb conference scheduled for August 15 [today], the head of state seems have made a U-turn and will be joining regional leaders for the second time as the Horn of Africa nation struggles to reach consensus on the model of elections.

The five Federal States leaders are set to convene at Dhusamareb, the regional administrative capital of Galmadug, for the second time in as many weeks, with the current electoral impasse being among the top agendas for the meeting. The team had met about a month ago where they agreed to form a technical committee that would give recommendations on the viable electoral model.

A statement released by the international community on Friday indicated that regional leaders had not dispatched their representatives for Dhusamareb technical committee talks, something which could further derail the ongoing electoral process in Somalia. The regional leaders are said to have been irked by the federal government's decision to dispatch six representatives instead of four.

Abdinur Mohamed, Farmajo's Director of Communications, denied claims that the Dhusamareb II talks had collapsed while confirming attendance of Farmajo to the conference. The president's presence, he added, was in line with the "spirit" of enhancing cooperation between the Federal Government and member states.

"In line with the state-building endeavors and in the spirit of enhancing the FGS-FMS cooperation on the way forward, H.E PresidentFarmaajo will be traveling to Dhuusamareeb tomorrow to participate in the 2nd round of FGS-FMS Consultative Forum," he said.

Farmajo's decision to attend the conference is a reprieve to the people of Somalia given the increasing pressure which could plunge the country into the worst political turmoil in three decades. Somalia has struggled to establish a stable government since 1991 after the ouster of Siad Barre.

Multiple sources intimated that Farmajo will first address the Lower House on Saturday before leaving for Dhusamareb and is expected to brief the about the conference. The Lower House has persistently been blamed for engineering the current quagmire, having been approving controversial electoral laws.

Just hours after the first conference concluded last month, the MPs, who have been given an invitation for presidential address, fired Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire. The PM's removal was widely criticized as a strategy to impair the current talks as a move to push for unprecedented term extensions.

In a tough-worded statement on Friday, several international actors warned against boycotting of Dhusamareb deal, where among others, the country's leaders agreed to hold timely elections. The technical committee, international actors added, should settle on a compromise electoral deal for the sake of unity.

"Failure by any leader to participate in the next summit would erode the still fragile trust, undermine the consensus-building process and impair the ability of the meeting to arrive at implementable decisions," read the statement, which was issued before Villa Somalia announced Farmajo's itinerary.

"No single stakeholder, including the legislature itself, should take a unilateral decision to extend the term of office of the 10th Parliament or of the federal executive," added the statement, which is a sharp contrast from previous communiques where Somalia's international partners were pushing for a one-person-one-vote model.

GAROWE ONLINE