Garowe, Somalia — The ex-Puntland president Abdiweli Mohamed Ali Gaas was alarmed by the deepening political and electoral crisis in his region ahead of the 8 January election.

Speaking to the media, Gaas said Puntland is struggling to deal with a new decision by SSC-Khatumo's elders, who unexpectedly declared they will not take part in the next polls.

This added fuel to the fire as a dispute between President Deni and his rival candidates was threatening a timely election. The current situation puts Puntland in a certainty.

Gaas served as president between 2014 and 2019. He is among the candidates running for the top seat despite a lack of assurance that the election will be held on the 8th of January.

Deni and the Puntland electoral body wanted to hold direct elections, while the opposition demanded a return to a clan-based electoral system, in which 66 MPs elect a president.

In June this year, at least 36 people were killed, and many were displaced from Garowe, Puntland's capital after government forces clashed with pro-opposition soldiers against an amendment to the constitution.

Somalia has not held multiparty elections since late 1969 when the military general Mohamed Siad Barre seized power from a democratically elected government at gunpoint.