tfg mps support pm.. and reject yeeys decision!!

[rudy-Diiriye]

BAIDOA, Somalia: Somalia's interim Parliament on Monday overwhelming backed the government of Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein, a day after the war-wracked country's president announced his dismissal. Speaker Aden Mohammad Nur said after counting the votes during a special Parliament session in the town of Baidoa that "143 MPs recognized the existence of the government, 20 rejected it and 7 abstained.

 

"Therefore the government of Nur Adde [Hassan Hussein] is legitimate," he said.

 

On Sunday, President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmad announced that he was sacking the prime minister and the entire Cabinet because they had failed to bring security to the war-torn nation, but the premier challenged the move as unconstitutional.

 

According to the transitional federal charter, the president needs Parliament's approval to sack the prime minister.

 

Speaking to Parliament before the vote, Hussein said: "It was difficult to work with the president, who disapproved of the peace process."

 

"The president was interfering with the activities of the prime minister and Parliament," he said. "It's up to Parliament to make a decision in order to save the transitional federal institutions and the rule of law."

 

Yusuf had said Monday he would comply with Parliament's decision and gave no hint he would resign.

 

"Should Parliament reject my desire to look for a new prime minister, I will comply with their decision and the current government will continue its tenure," Yusuf had said Sunday.

 

Hussein, 70, was sworn in on November 2007 but has been at loggerheads with Yusuf in recent months, notably over efforts to strike a reconciliation agreement with the Islamist-dominated Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS).

 

 

"The president abused the power of his office and undermined the legitimacy of parliament ... The president was attempting to sabotage peace efforts between TFG [transitional federal government] and the ARS," the premier said.

 

The UN mediator of the talks warned that the latest row risked hindering reconciliation efforts and African Union Commission chairman Jean Ping also voiced concern.

 

Yusuf's move "has the potential of undermining the sustained efforts being made by the AU, IGAD and the larger international community, including the United Nations, to further reconciliation, peace, and stability in Somalia," the AU said in a statement.

 

IGAD is the Inter-Government Authority on Development, a regional organization that has contributed to peace talks in Somalia and the creation of its transitional institutions.

 

Hussein replaced Ali Mohammad Gedi who was forced to resign after months of a bruising power struggle with Yusuf, a veteran warlord who has headed Somalia's transitional administration since its inception in 2004.

 

Somalia's transitional Parliament is based in the town of Baidoa, the only area of the country not under Islamist control apart from Mogadishu.

 

In September 2008, Hussein survived a vote of no confidence after being accused by some lawmakers of embezzling state funds. - AFP, with The Daily Star