A meeting is due to kick-off in Somalia’s Presidential Palace where the incumbent Somali President, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud is meeting with the Salvation and Rescue Council which brings together the opposition figures. The meeting comes after the incumbent Somali President has extended an invitation to the opposition figures and accepted the president’s invitation to attend the meeting in order to discuss the disagreement emanating from the approach the upcoming elections in 2026 will be held.
The opposition politicians strongly opposed the Somali President’s plan in which he intends to hold one-man one-vote. They were skeptical the way the President is administering the elections while there is no broad based agreement over elections. Issues that the opposition will discuss with the Somali President include the amendment of the constitution. The opposition will put pressure to President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud to reverse his decision in which he changed the constitution.
They will demand disbanding the Independent Election Commission in which they did not have faith in them. Members of the Salvation and Rescue Council held a number of meetings in a row in Mogadishu for the past days and finally reached a unanimous decision last night to jot down crucial issues that they will discuss with incumbent Somali President.
The Former Somali President Shariif Shiekh Ahmed is leading the opposition politicians and held meetings in his residential house in Mogadishu. The opposition politicians already boycotted the National Consultative Conference which was held and wrapped in Mogadishu. They have never accepted the formal invitation of President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud to meet with him.
On his side, the incumbent Somali President, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud is planning to convince the opposition figures to agree with him to hold one-man one-vote in the country while they made clear that they confirmed that they will not return to indirect elections.
Jubaland and Puntland leaders held a meeting in Garowe and are preoccupied to issue an official statement which will be aimed to unify their power. They will discuss the political situation in the country and the approach they want to deal with the current obstacles.
However, the meeting that will kick-off in Mogadishu and will be in attendance by the Somali President and the Salvation and Rescue Council is the first meeting after the opposition met in Aljazeera Hotel in Mogadishu. They issued a press statement in which they demanded that the Somali President must reverse his decision in which he amended the constitution and reach an agreement over the 2026 election.
