The guidelines were issued three months after Puntland State had signed an agreement on indirect elections.
President Mohamud also signed the presidential guidelines in line with an agreement signed by the National Leadership Forum made up of the Federal Government and Federal Member States.
In May 2019, President Mohammed Abdullahi Mohammed, who was attending a summit in Garowe at the time, then rejected a suggestion from Puntland President Said Abdullahi Deni to form a National Leadership Council.
Citing the 2016, presidential guidelines in the absence of an electoral agreement will prove an obstacle to breaking the electoral deadlock despite the United Nations Security Council in the past 24 hours now urging all involved to work towards breaking the impasse.
This article first appeared in the © Puntland Post, 2021 and is republished with permission