Somalia’s lawmakers of the lower house of parliament in unprecedented move on Monday voted to effectively extend the mandate of the outgoing President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo and the Federal Government administration. The vote follows the much-delayed elections that were scheduled for February.
The term extension by the lawmakers has caused mixed reactions from the citizenry of Somalia, the Senate as well as international community terming the term extension as unconstitutional.
According to U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, timely elections are a critical pillar of healthy democracy, condemning engineering a term extension as a breach of democratic norms that risks destabilizing Somalia. The committee noted that Somalia stakeholders must reach consensus and any attempts to undermine dialogue on a path to credible polls must stop.
Leaders of the Senate on the other hand objected the term extension and called the action dangerous that could further fuel anarchy the Horn of Africa nation.
The vote to hold a direct election in two years’ time, which would require the federal government and president to stay in office, came amid international pressure on Somali leaders to end the current political impasse. The United Nations has warned that Somalia, rebuilding after three decades of conflict and still rocked by extremist attacks posed by the Al-Qaeda affiliated Al-Shabaab and as such, can hardly afford more instability.
Federal Government of Somalia and Regional Member States have been unable to reach a consensus on how to carryout elections with the latter putting blame on the outgoing President Farmajo.
The Monday’s vote in the Somalia lower house of parliament was almost unanimous, with 149 lawmakers in support, three against and one abstaining. The vote notably followed another incident that saw Sadiq Omar Hassan who was the police commissioner for Mogadishu and its surroundings sacked for trying to stop the parliament from holding the meeting.
After the vote, Somalia’s Senate deputy speaker, Abshir Axmad, took on to social media to express his concerns saying that Monday’s vote was a threat to Somalia’s democracy and stability. The lower house of parliament “can’t undertake such a consequential decision without the approval of the Senate,” he wrote.
In a statement, Somalia Senate called on the international community to intervene the unfolding incidents gets out of hand. On the other hand, President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed Farmajo welcomed the vote to extend his mandate calling on the citizens to seize the historic chance to choose their destiny as the House of the People voted to return the elections mandate to the people,” he said in a Twitter post.
Last week, the US State Department had put on notice Somalia’s spy agency, NISA on gross violation of human rights and interference of internal politics. Washington also threatened to blacklist “elements” dragging reconciliation efforts in the war-torn country.
