By Guleid Abdi Maher
HARGEISA (Somalilandsun) The two vice chairmen of the Somaliland House of Representatives Hon.Bashe Mohammed Farah and Hon. Ali Yusuf Ahmed have declared in a signed statement that the recent move by the speaker as null and void.
Both are Kulmiye members. The recent re-shuffles made on the parliamentary select committees by the national assembly speaker Hon. Abdirahman Mohammed Abdullah (IIRO) who is also the chairman of the national opposition party (WADANI).
A press statement signed by the duo said that after referring to Act 18- Section-5 concerning elections of select committees and reshuffle cannot be done before the end of the year and the change of all committees at once is therefore not binding.
The two vice-chairmen went on say that:
I. The reshuffle is null-and-void.
II. The select committees remain the same until further notice.
III. The committees should complete the bills before them first
IV. The reshuffle will be done when it is appropriate.
This put the two vice chairmen at logger-head with the speaker who at the moment is outside the country. It is strange that the duo speaking-out because the ruling party Kulmiye lost out select committees.
To the opposition National party (Wadani) it is a well known phenomenon that the chairman Bashe chaired the election of select committees where by both chairmen and secretaries were elected why then now the same person in charge of the election is annulling it.
It is the election of two out spoken members of parliament that has un-ruffled feathers, one is that of Hon Ibrahim Rayte (WADANI) and Hon. Ibrahim Mahad Bubaa (WADANI).Both won the chairman ship of two important committees thus the internal security and defense, and the permanent committees respectively.
The chairman of the House of Representatives Hon. Abdirahman said that it was wrong for the two vice-chairmen to change a parliamentary decision. He said that the decision to reshuffle the committee members came from a parliamentary vote and not a personal decision.
The speaker was speaking in a telephone conversation with the Horn Cable Television(HCTV).This power struggle with in parliament may cause a political tag of war since he opposition accuse the government of interfering with parliamentary decision because of a phobia of opposition by the Kulmiye regime.
