Thursday July 16, 2020
FILE
Mogadishu (HOL) - More than 100 members of Somalia's parliament held a closed-door meeting with President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo on Wednesday evening, asking him to clarify his position on the election.
The lawmakers allegedly suggested that it would not be possible for the country to hold credible one-person-one-vote polls on time.
MPs have told HOL that President Farmajo said that he would be travelling to Dhusamareb for consultations with the other regional leaders and the Prime Minister.
The meeting between the president and lawmakers at Villa Somalia last night comes mere hours after the parliamentary speaker Mohamed Mursal Sheikh Abdirahman lambasted the FMS leaders for taking it upon themselves to rule out direct elections. He contended that the legal authority to determine the electoral model rests with Somalia's parliament.
Mursal is viewed as a close ally of President Farmajo.
Several lawmakers we spoke with said that they had positive feelings about their meeting with Farmajo and that they are eagerly awaiting the outcome of the Dhusamareb conference.