NAIROBI, 27 June (IRIN) - Clan representatives in the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, northeastern Somalia, have been debating the future of President Abdullahi Yusuf and his administration. According to the administration, there has been an overwhelming decision in favour of extending its mandate -which is due to expire on 30 June - for another three years. But aspiring presidential candidates and disgruntled opposition figures have called foul, and say that an increasingly unpopular administration manipulated the vote.

On Wednesday, the Puntland House of Representatives approved an extension of the mandate of the region's administration by three years, a senior Puntland official told IRIN. Isma'il Warsame, chief of cabinet of the Puntland president, said "42 members voted yes" for the extension. Fifty-nine of the 66 members of the house were present, and the motion only needed a "simple majority" to pass, Warsame said.

Functioning like a legislature, the House of Representatives has 66 members from the five Puntland regions. Clans represented by the elders name the people to sit in the House. Puntland also has a traditional elders' council. "The elders council has inherited positions, and can override the House of Representatives", a local source explained. "In the eyes of the people, the elders have the most legitimacy", the sources said.

Reports that the traditional elders council voted "overwhelmingly" to recommend the extension has been met with cries of foul by the opposition.

Jama Ali Jama, a prominent presidential candidate, told IRIN that the elders had not made any such a decision, and that the announcement to the effect that they had done so was made by "illegitimate individuals". Jama described the decision by the House of Representatives as a "farce". He said it contravened Article 34.2 of the Puntland Charter, and revealed "this administration's antidemocratic tendencies". The House of Representatives did not have the constitutional power to extend the administration's mandate, he added. Jama said the opposition would convene an elders' council bringing together "the legitimate representatives of the people" to challenge "this black-market" decision.

Meanwhile, the situation was further complicated by reports that the Puntland High Court ha issued a decree dated 26 June, putting all security services and other government agencies and institutions under the court's supervision after 30 June, local sources told IRIN. Yusuf Haji Nur, Chief Justice of the High Court told the BBC on Wednesday that the decree had been issued and was in line with the Puntland charter, which empowers the court to assume all governmental powers in the event that elections are not held in time.

Isma'il Warsame, however, dismissed the move and told IRIN that the court did not have the constitutional power to issue such a decree. "The court's decision has been overridden by the extension [of the administration's mandate]", he said.

The TNG, on its' part, has recently felt more hopeful about talks with Abdullahi Yusuf, diplomatic and Somali political sources told IRIN. His considered by many as a critical opposition leader "of a different calibre" to the southern-based faction leaders.

The Puntland president is a former army colonel, who attempted a coup against former President Muhammad Siyad Barre in 1978 along with other Majerten officers. After the coup failed, he fled into Ethiopia and set up the first serious armed opposition group, the Somali Salvation Democratic Front (SSDF). When he became president of Puntland in 1998, he enjoyed the support not only of his own clan, but their Harti cousins, the Dhulbahante and the Warsangeli, local sources said.

Some of the opposition are now accusing the administration of "buying votes", but local sources said it was unlikely to result in any serious power struggle. "People in Puntland will do everything they can to avoid conflict, and they will abandon agitation if they think it will seriously undermine stability", one local source said.

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   Forty-two out of the 59 members who attended Wednesday's special session approved the motion to extend the government's term, which was due to expire in August, the chief of the cabinet Ismalil Warsame said in a statement to AFP. One member abstained from voting.

Parliament in the northeastern Somali state is based on proportional clan representation and has 66 seats.

The state was created in 1998 after warlords in Mogadishu failed to establish a central government. Puntland's government is headed by president Abdullahi Yousuf Ahmed and is based in the town of Garowe.

   Elders met on Monday and resolved to give parliament the mandate to extend the term of the current government to enable the administration to put electoral laws in place.

   The elders have no clear constitutional role, but their consent is important before any major changes in the administration to preserve clan harmony.

   According to the Puntland constitution, a simple majority is required to change the constitution.

   Yousuf's administration is widely credited, even by its critics, of having brought relative peace in Puntland.

   The regional economy has, however, been hard hit by a ban on livestock exports to Gulf states for health reasons and the government would have found it difficult to finance the elections.

   Yousuf is a former army colonel and founder of the first armed rebellion against the government of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, who was ousted in 1991.