Confusion Regarding Somali Election Process
Media Line News Agency
January 13, 2009
The timetable for the upcoming presidential election of the Transitional Federal Government (TGF) of Somali has been thrown into question as two conflicting agendas have emerged, Garowe news agency reported on Monday.
According to the Somali constitution, a new president must be elected within 30 days of the resignation of the serving president. This means that elections must be held before the January 29 as former president ´Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmad stepped down on December 29 after losing the support of the parliament amid a standoff with then prime minister Nour Hassan Hussein over a peace agreement signed in neighboring Djibouti.
The agreement included only the more moderate faction of the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS), one of many Islamist rebel groups that has been fighting for control over Somalia during the country´s 18 years of civil war.
According to the agreement, the TGF parliament would be comprised of 550 seats, which would be distributed among the Djibouti-based ARS faction and the current MPs. Currently the parliament consists of 275 members.
There is no need for a unity government and expansion of the parliament, acting president and parliament speaker, Sheikh Adan Mohammed, told reporters in Baidoa, where the elections are scheduled to take place since the capital Mogadishu in under rebel control.
However, during a meeting on Sunday attended by defense ministers of Somalia, Uganda and Burundi, as well as representatives from the United Nations, the African Union and the Somali opposition group ARS, it was agreed to expand the parliament to include the ARS before electing a new president.
According to the Somali constitution, a new president must be elected within 30 days of the resignation of the serving president. This means that elections must be held before the January 29 as former president ´Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmad stepped down on December 29 after losing the support of the parliament amid a standoff with then prime minister Nour Hassan Hussein over a peace agreement signed in neighboring Djibouti.
The agreement included only the more moderate faction of the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS), one of many Islamist rebel groups that has been fighting for control over Somalia during the country´s 18 years of civil war.
According to the agreement, the TGF parliament would be comprised of 550 seats, which would be distributed among the Djibouti-based ARS faction and the current MPs. Currently the parliament consists of 275 members.
There is no need for a unity government and expansion of the parliament, acting president and parliament speaker, Sheikh Adan Mohammed, told reporters in Baidoa, where the elections are scheduled to take place since the capital Mogadishu in under rebel control.
However, during a meeting on Sunday attended by defense ministers of Somalia, Uganda and Burundi, as well as representatives from the United Nations, the African Union and the Somali opposition group ARS, it was agreed to expand the parliament to include the ARS before electing a new president.