MOGADISHU: Somalia’s leaders Saturday failed to break a deadlock over the country’s elections, with no clear path to a vote just days before the government’s mandate expires.
The fragile country is likely to miss a February 8 deadline to choose a new president after days of negotiations between the central government and federal states collapsed Friday.
The impasse could usher in a political crisis in the Horn of Africa nation already confronting a violent Islamist insurgency, a locust invasion and serious food shortages.
President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, who is seeking a second term, told parliament on Saturday his administration “made compromises on everything” to secure a last-minute agreement during talks with regional leaders in Dhusamareb, some 400 kilometres (250 miles) north of the capital Mogadishu.
“I was hoping there would have been some sort of commitment if we got together there but unfortunately that prospect did not materialise,” said the president, who is also known as Farmajo.
“There is still hope. We have agreed to go forward, and make appointments for further talks.”
The president accused Jubaland and Puntland, two of Somalia’s five semi-autonomous regions, of failing to compromise and thereby scuttling an earlier deal to hold indirect parliamentary and presidential elections in late 2020 and early 2021.
That agreement, reached in September, fell apart as squabbles erupted over how to conduct the vote, and deepened mistrust between Farmajo and his regional rivals, most notably in Jubaland.
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