Puntland State President Sacid Abdullahi Deni, accompanied by members of both houses of parliament elected in Puntland have arrived in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, on Tuesday.
The Puntland state president has announced his candidacy for Somali president on March 19.
President Sacid Deni has arrived in Mogadishu a day after Somalia’s bicameral parliament approved the timetable for the election of the house speakers. However, the presidential election date has not yet been announced.
President Deni has ignored calls from politicians for him to resign and hand over power to his deputy. Former Somali Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke and other senior politicians from the semi-autonomous state of Puntland called on President Deni to resign as Puntland president.
At a press conference in Nairobi earlier this month, they accused the Puntland president of causing delays in Puntland’s development and committing war crimes in Puntland state.
Puntland Finance Minister Hassan Shire Abgal – a close friend of Deni’s – emphasized that Deni would return to Puntland if he did not win the presidential election.
Sacid Abdullahi Deni, a former Somalia planning minister, was elected president of Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland region in 2019 after receiving 35 out of 66 votes cast by regional parliamentarians in the final round.
