Prior to the last three weeks, Khatumo State forces were able to advance steadily towards the capital, Laascaanood. The SSC people to create Khatumo State gave the armed forces their support. Even though there was a strong appetite for capturing and liberating capital city of Laascaanood before the selection of new legislatures on the part of fellow SSC traditional elders in Khatumo State, the weakness of this position was clear. Therefore, very quickly Saaxdheer meeting agreed to negotiations with the all SSC regions. They agreed partly because of the attitude of the international community.

The key points of the political agreement are as follows:

• The new Parliamentarians and Constitution will be the foundations of the Khatumo State of Somalia.  
• After election the new president and vice president will remains in office until 2018.
• There will be a Government of Khatumo State comprising the Dhulbahante people, as well as the various tribes in the SSC regions.
• The Government will be in power for at least 4 Years and only the legislatures can dismiss the President from the office (under the guidelines of Khatumo’s new constitution).
• Consistent with the agreement, the incumbent government duly will resign. 

The agreement has some of the signs of the sort of arrangement that was reached 2012 in Khatumo2 and that still applies in Khatumo3. However, there are major differences. This is a constitutional document, and is very short. (For the record, the earlier Khatumo2 agreement did establish a tri-presidential regime, at least until the new presidential constitution was adopted. By contrast, this khatumo3 agreement did not establish semi-presidentialism because the government is not responsible to the legislature.

Over and above the specifics of this particular case, the current Khatumo3 agreement is interesting because it creates the conditions for a test of one of the supposed advantages of semi-state. An open question, though, is what the situations like the ones in Khatumo3 and Khatumo2 are really providing a test of new legislatures. Obviously, the situation in Khatumo3 meeting cannot a test of any argument about democratic consolidation, because the SSC regions are currently well below any threshold of democracy. However, the Kahtumo3 case, it could be considered a test of whether the new constitution and legislatures can create the conditions for the emergence of democracy by establishing a system of power-sharing and stability in these regions.

Inconclusion, the situation in Khatumo3 meeting provides a potential test of one of the supposed advantages of Khatumo State new legislatures and its capacity to generate the conditions for democratization. Let’s see what happens and hope that Khatumo’s history of instability can be overcome.