Somaliland Parliament Seeks To Impeach President

[Liibaan]

Somaliland Parliament Seeks To Impeach President

 

HARGEISA, Somaliland (Somaliland Globe) - Somaliland’s Lower House of Parliament is set to debate President Dahir Rayale’s impeachment on Sunday. Tomorrow’s parliament session would set into motion Rayale’s Your browser may not support display of this image. impeachment process, Senior Lawmaker told The Somaliland Globe

 

Thirty eight MPs of the seventy-one parliamentarians who attended parliament today put their signatures to the impeachment motion.

 

Ahmed Mohamed Dirie, the deputy chairman of the Standing Committee is one of the prime movers of the motion to impeach Rayale. He says, “Under Article 96 sub article 1a and 1b of the Constitution of Somaliland, the House resolved to impeach President Dahir Rayale Kahin for violation of the constitution and high treason and that upon adoption of this motion by this House a tribunal (a committee of ten members who shall prosecute the charges against the President) will be established under the same article to investigate allegations leveled against him.”

 

Impeachment of the president requires a two-third majority vote in the Upper House of Parliament but the Lower House may approve of the charges on a majority vote of half of its total membership, plus one (absolute majority) under the country’s constitution.

 

It would be the second time in Somaliland’s 18-year history as a sovereign and independent state, which has yet to be recognized by the international community, that a president would be impeached. Rayale’s predecessor, the late president Mohamed Haji Ibrahim Egal, survived legislative impeachment by one vote even though the multi-party system was not introduced to the country at the time.

 

The opposition-sponsored motion makes a litany of allegations of abuse of office and violations of the constitution against the president, which include violations of articles1,9,22,23,37 ,39,53,54,55,74,75,7 6,77,80,126,127,128, 129 and130.

 

There has been a flurry of activity up and down the presidential palace until late last night, with president Rayale mobilizing his coterie of supporters in a desperate attempt to prevent the impeachment process from moving forward.

 

Last week the president ordered the commander of the Police Force, Mohammed Saqadi Dubad, to send a contingent of police into parliament to aid six legislators loyal to the president to attend and participate in the day’s parliamentary business. The six legislators were given 3-day suspension from parliamentary sittings following “gross disorderly conduct”.

 

Earlier, the Lower House of Parliament gave Rayale “seven days” to rescind his decision to hold the forthcoming presidential election planned for 27 September “without voter registration list”, which runs counter to the Electoral Law of the country.

 

Running out of friend, Rayale faces a bleak future and has become increasingly isolated and cocooned in his presidential palace.

 

Somaliland Globe