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.
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