Puntland conference on hold

The conference of the representatives of the constituent regions of the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, northeastern Somalia, which has been on hold for the last week will resume on 28 October, a Puntland official told IRIN on Thursday. The Puntland general congress, which opened on 26 August in Garowe, the regional capital, was scheduled to have ended on 1 October, but was suspended several times for various reasons. The conference has been struggling in the past week to resolve differences within one of the sub-clans participating, a local journalist told IRIN. The conference chairman, Islan Muhammad Islan Muse, has reportedly refused to reconvene the conference until differences between individual delegates are fully resolved, Adan Abdirahman Dolar, editor of the Garowe-based Nugal Times, said. Dolar said that the differences were primarily within the delegates of the Dhulbahante sub-clan and added that those differences had now been resolved. Puntland's "acting president", Yusuf Haji Nur, told IRIN he expected the conference to reconvene on Sunday. "I have had discussions with the chairman, and he assured me that the conference would resume on Sunday," Yusuf said on Thursday. According to Dolar, if the conference resumes on 28 October it should not take long for it to finish its work. The conference is expected to elect a new Puntland administration.