Abdulkadir Khalif, Nation Correspondent
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Mogadishu, Somalia - A United Nations sponsored consultative meeting on Somalia’s Roadmap to Stability has concluded in Garowe town, the capital of the semi autonomous state of Puntland, 1,000 kilometres northeast of Mogadishu.
One of the thorny issues at the meeting was good governance, which included parliamentary reform before end of the shelf-life of the current government by August 20, 2012.
According to the Garowe Principle, the Somali parliament will be composed of 225 MPs that will be selected on the basis of the clan power sharing-formula of 4.5, that is an allocation for ‘one lot’ for each of four big Somali clans while 0.5 is allocated for a coalition of smaller clans.
It will mean a marked reduction from the current number of 550 MPs.
When the TFG was established in Kenya, following two years (2002-2004) of talks at Mbagathi, 275 individuals were selected as MPs.
The number was doubled at the end of another reconciliation conference in Djibouti in 2008, boosting the legislators to 550. The next parliament will have a Chamber of Elders (a sort of Senate).
Source: Daily Nation