A Panic in Villa Somalia

The trouble all started earlier this week when the Somali president Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed was prompted to walk out of a top-level meeting in the Kenyan capital Nairobi. The walk-out followed a late entrance into the meeting, in which Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali made a late appearance accompanied by the Puntland leader Abdirahman Farole.

A day after the incident in Nairobi the Somali premier announced his candidacy for the presidential seat in the capital Mogadishu. This was the fire that is now fully ablaze in the Somali seat of power.

Apparently, the prime minister’s run for president has angered Sheikh Sharif. For months there were rumors of Dr. Ali running, but few took his chances of victory very seriously.

Following the Nairobi meeting this past week, and the large showing for his candidacy announcement party, the press and the people of Mogadishu have seen a more confident prime minister than the one they knew months ago. Dr. Ali looks to be as serious a candidate as any of his rivals, and this has worried the Somali president.

Earlier today, in a move that shocked the Somali capital, President Ahmed requested the appointment of a temporary prime minister who would serve only twelve days, until a new president and prime minister would be selected on August 20. The president was looking in particular toward replacing Prime Minister Ali with the defense minister and deputy premier Hussein Arab Isse.

The latest schism is the result of a panicked president who sees his reelection campaign threatened by a serious candidate, his own prime minister. The only other serious competitors are the current Muslim Brotherhood candidate Dr. Abdirahman Badiyow, and former prime minister Mohamed Farmajo.

The former prime minister has reportedly been paid very handsomely to stay out of politics and is likely to be campaigning in vain, while Dr. Badiyow is said to already be in the pocket of Sheikh Sharif’s camp. This just leaves Dr. Ali in the running against President Ahmed.

To give an idea of the intensity of this latest clash, the government mouthpiece Radio Muqdisho, which covers every major event in the Somali capital, refused to attend the prime minister’s candidacy ceremony this past week. And the president’s camp has refused to acknowledge the news on any medium.

Making matters worse, the man considered to be the deciding factor in Somalia’s electoral process, its sly speaker of parliament Sharif Sheikh Hassan, has been distancing himself from president’s camp and even had a brief photo-op with the prime minister ahead of his candidacy ceremony. In today’s political atmosphere in Somalia, whichever camp gets the last visit from Speaker Hassan takes it all.

The failure to resolve the broken relationship between Mogadishu and Puntland has led to an all-out race between the two camps, in which cooperation has taken a backseat, and a heated race for the top seat has begun. Cordiality seems to have ended.

While the race is ongoing, international mediators are currently in the Somali capital settling the latest dispute, which has gone as far as to even threaten the path of the Somali transition blueprint, known as the ‘Roadmap.’

Rumors flew after President Ahmed’s fiasco in Nairobi that he would stand in the way of the peace process if he didn’t get his way. It seems now that the worst is coming to light.

{DN Staff Writers}

DissidentNation.com