Hiiraan Online
Saturday, May 21, 2016
MOGADISHU (HOL) – Somalia’s outgoing parliament has again delayed a vote to approve the election process amid concerns by the international community over the protracted process for the forthcoming presidential election, submitted by the government last month.
Last week, members of the United Nations Security Council who visited Somali capital urged Somali president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud to pluck his constitutional power to have the parliament vote on the bill, which they said would earn an ‘automatic’ UN support.
Mohamed Sheikh Osman, Somalia’s parliament speaker told reporters that Saturday’s assembly was delayed for two more days, demanding more time to figure out dispute in electoral process.
Somali officials told HOL that key sticking points including the upper house power sharing arrangements remain unsettled; a development which western diplomats fear could scupper the chances of holding a timely presidential election in Somalia.
Somalia’s top leaders and leaders from regional states in the country are currently holding behind closed doors meeting in Mogadishu in a bid to end the political stalemate which threatens to further undermine the electoral process.
The country’s major donors including European Union and the United States warned that failure to act quickly would ‘jeopardize’ the Somali political process and set Somalia several years back."
According to Somalia’s Provisional Federal Constitution, adopted in 2012, the mandates of the Somali Federal Parliament and of the government would come to an end in August and September 2016, respectively.
The international community which is spearheading efforts aimed at restoring peace and order into the Somalia which is recovering from decades of war mandated the current government to lead the country into general elections following the election of President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, a new parliament and the adoption of a new constitution in 2012.