Somalia’s prime minister has been suspended by the country’s president amid accusations that he interfered with an investigation into a scandal involving army-owned land.
Persecondnews.com reports that President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo Monday said that he was suspending Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble, a day after the two men clashed over long-delayed elections.
On Sunday, Mr Roble accused the president of sabotaging the electoral process, after Mr Farmajo withdrew the prime minister’s mandate to organise the vote and called for the creation of a new committee to “correct” the shortcomings.
Mr Roble, who has not responded to Monday’s suspension announcement, said Mr Farmajo did not want to hold “a credible election in this country”.
Mr Farmajo in turn accused Mr Roble of trying to influence the investigation into army-owned land after the prime minister sacked and replaced the defence minister on Sunday.
“The prime minister has pressurised the minister of defence to divert the investigations of the case relating to the grabbed public land,” the office of the president said on Monday.
In October, Mr Farmajo and Mr Roble issued a unified call for the glacial election process to accelerate.
Somalia has not held a one-man, one-vote election in 50 years and its polls follow a complex indirect model.
Leave a comment