Somalia - October 2022

On 1 October Somaliland’s Guurti, the upper chamber of the self-governing region’s legislature, voted to extend President Muse Bihi Abdi’s term by two years. It came a month after the postponement of the presidential election from 13 November 2022 to July 2023, which pushed it beyond the end of the President’s current term, which expires in December 2022. The two-year term extension is longer than was required by the election postponement and raises questions about when the election will take place. While such term extensions are common, the Center for Policy Analysis, a think tank, has assessed it be unconstitutional and warns it may destabilize the country – in August 2022, tensions between the political opposition and government over the election calendar, which both sides regard as critical to their political fortunes, broke out into deadly opposition protests. The extension was rejected by the opposition, who have threatened not to recognize Bihi’s government.

Sources: Reuters, Somaliland Chronicle, Crisis Group, Twitter (1), Twitter (2)