Clan nominees completed

Djibouti President Ismail Omar Guelleh said on Tuesday that the Djibouti-hosted Somali National Peace Conference had reached a critical point with the list of nominees complete for the proposed Transitional National Assembly (TNA). The remaining two main clan groups to hand their lists in, the Hawiye and the Darood, reached agreement on Monday and submitted their nominations. President Guelleh personally addressed the conference on Tuesday, and congratulated participants for reaching agreement after weeks of deadlock.

He said the sharing out of seats for the TNA had “proved to be more complex and intricate than I previously expected”, reported sources at the conference. After he left the conference tent in Arte, about 30 km south of Djibouti city, Somali delegates proposed that the Djibouti president be allowed to designate 20 more parliamentarians for the TNA as “a discretionary measure enabling the president to deal with unresolved clan disputes”. The Darood sub-clans of Ogaden, Lelkase and Dulbante are reportedly still dissatisfied with the way the main clan has divided up the seats among the sub-clans, sources at the conference told IRIN.

There is anticipation that the TNA will be approved and seated by the end of the week, the sources said.