By: Yusuf M Hasan
HARGEISA (Somalilandsun) – The government is covertly pushing for a motion to impeach the speaker of parliament’s House of Representatives.
According to the affected speaker Abdirahman Mohamed Abdilahi ‘Irro’ the pre-impeachment campaign by the government fronted by Vice president Abdilahi Sayli in whose house in /Hargeisa the machinations are underway.
Irro who also doubles as the chairman and presidential candidate of opposition party Wadani is under fire emanating from parliament’s upper chamber, Guurti, as pertains alleged doctoring of the registration bill submitted to the elder’s house for approval, thence moves to impeach him.
“Since an impeachment motion by legislators is legal it should be brought to the house for debate and not in the house of a senior government official” said Irro.
Speaker Irro made this accusations upon return from Nairobi in company of his colleagues in political leadership Feisal Ali Warabe of UCID and Muse Behi of Kulmiye who had been visiting Kenya upon summons by the Somaliland Democratization Monitoring Committee-SDMC to satisfy fears from the donor community that presidential and parliamentary elections slated for mid- 2015 shall be held on time.
During the on SDMC summons absence of the trio of Somaliland’s senior most political leaders in Nairobi a lot of salvo directed towards speaker Irro was in place emanating from the chair of Guurti Suleiman Aden and later from Kulmiye legislators as pertained to the alleged doctoring of the registration bill approved by the house of representatives and submitted to Guurti for similar action.
But according to one legislator and heavyweight within his Kulmiye party the house is not intent on impeachment but will not undertake any house business until the issue of the Suleiman alleged doctored bill is addressed.
While doctored bills is of grave concern to all in Somaliland, Irro who is aspiring for the country’s highest office in forthcoming elections and been damaged by the allegations is hard pressed to clean his name from the tampering with legislation for personal gains claims.
On the other hand and in lieu of the suspicious allegations of tampering made against speaker Irro by his Guurti Counterpart, a Wadani insider says that the accusations and resultant intent to impeach the speaker were a calculated government move in the guise of the house of elders to delay voters registration thence postpone elections as feared by the SDMV and opposition parties as well as prominent politicians.
Apart from the unproven absurdity of Tampered with legislations by Suleiman Aden, the irony of the proposed impeachment motion is the gentleman’s agreement facilitated by Elder Abdi Warabe of Guurti in which Irro cannot be impeached during his current tenure.
This agreement followed a protracted battle in the housed of representatives that saw legislators from the ruling Kulmiye party engaged in maneuvers towards impeaching the speaker after the house amend sitting protocols that saw the deputy and second deputy speakers relegated to sitting not opposite their boss but at the chamber with ordinary members.
Though not overtly acknowledged the opposition legislators in parliament had countered the Irro impeachment campaign with a similar one on Impeaching the president thence the Elder Warabe facilitated agreement which stipulates that neither of the two, speaker and president, can be removed from office through legislative channels during the reminder of their current tenures that end simultaneously mid 2015.
For now it shall be suffice for Mr. Abdirahman Irro to clear his name from alleged Tampering with a bill approved by the House of Representast5vies, for Suleiman Aden to prove his allegations and for VP Sayli to deter from covert impeachment machinations and let the constitutional stipulations take their cause.
In the meantime let the government and politicians know that Somalilanders are aware of plots to postpone elections
