Mohammed Omar Ahmed
Sunday January 7, 2024
Puntland, an oil-rich, semi-autonomous territory in eastern Somalia, will select a new president on Jan. 8 in a parliamentary vote that comes as Mogadishu is seized with trying to assert its control over the breakaway region of Somaliland.
The next leader of Puntland, long known as a haven for pirates and Islamic State militants, will be chosen by 66 lawmakers at a meeting in Garowe, the regional capital.
The front-runners, all of whom have pledged to improve security and fire up the economy, are:
- Said Abdullahi Deni, Puntland’s incumbent president.
- Abdiweli Mohamed Ali, who previously served as the region’s leader.
- Guled Salah Barre, an ex-chairman of Puntland’s electoral body.
- Abshir Omar Jama, Somalia’s former foreign affairs minister.
While Puntland has oil and gas reserves, there has been little commercial extraction so far because it has been dogged by violence. Officials in the region have previously clashed with the national government over laws governing the energy sector and electoral processes.
Somalia has been outraged by a deal whereby Somaliland agreed to lease part of its territory to Ethiopia to give it access to the Red Sea in exchange for a stake in its national airline, saying its territorial integrity and sovereignty had been breached. That could complicate any attempts by Puntland’s next administration to assert itself more forcefully.