Jubaland President Regrets “Supporting Hamsa and Gaboose” in Joining the Somali Bicameral Legislature

[Deeq A.]

Hamse Abdi Barre, the Prime Minister of Somalia, was the Chairman of Jubaland Electoral Commission when President Ahmed was re-elected in 2019.

Kismaayo (PP News Desk) — In 2022, during the selection of MPs and Senators to represent Jubaland State in the bicameral federal legislature of Somalia, the President of Jubaland State, Ahmed Mohamed Islam, handpicked two individuals: Hamsa Abdi Barre as an MP and Ilyaas Bedel Gaboose as a Senator. Hamsa was the Chairman of the Jubaland Electoral Commission, the body that oversaw the election of the Jubaland President in 2019. Ilyaas was a candidate for the position of second deputy speaker of the Upper House but withdrew his candidacy due to pressure from the Jubaland Administration.

Unbeknownst to Ilyaas, there was a secret deal between the Jubaland President and Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, who was a presidential candidate at the time. Upon winning the election, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud appointed Hamsa as his Prime Minister.

The Jubaland State President Ahmed Mohamed Islam may be reflecting on his 2022 decisions to select two individuals who later challenged his authority illegally and violently.

In 2024, when the Jubaland President fell out with President Mohamud over a one-year term extension for the Jubaland Administration to delay the federal member state’s presidential election in November 2024, Hamsa urged Senator Ilyaas Bedel Gaboose to run for the Jubaland Presidency. Ilyaas was reportedly instructed by Villa Somalia to claim to have been elected President of Jubaland State one day before the Jubaland presidential election would take place. Ilyaas briefly declared himself the winner of the Jubaland presidential election before surrendering to Jubaland Security Forces in Kismaayo.

The Federal Government of Somalia viewed Ilyaas’s claim as an opportunity to brand the election as contested. Last night, Hamsa issued a statement through his council of ministers, alleging that the Jubaland President reneged on agreements he signed during the National Consultative Council summits and that the Jubaland Administration violated the federal member state’s constitution, which “bars a president from serving more than two terms.” The Federal Government of Somalia had not raised objections to amendments to the Jubaland Constitution that lifted limits on presidential terms. Villa Somalia was counting on the vote of the Jubaland President to expedite its impractical vision of one-person, one-vote elections in 2026.

Ilyaas briefly declared himself the winner of the 2024 Jubaland presidential election before surrendering to Jubaland Security Forces in Kismaayo.

The playbook used by Villa Somalia in 2024 is similar to the one employed by President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo in 2019 to organise a parallel presidential election in Kismaayo. Both attempts pushed Jubaland further into Kenya’s security domain. Kenya, which liberated Kismaayo from Al-Shabaab in September 2012, maintains peacekeepers within ATMIS.

Hamsa and Senator Bedel failed in their objective to destabilise the Jubaland electoral system. However, the Jubaland President may be  reflecting on his 2022 decisions to select two individuals who later challenged his authority illegally and violently.

© Puntland Post, 2024

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