Ex-president's Son Becomes Somalia PM

[Liibaan]

Ex-president's Son Becomes Somalia PM

 

IslamOnline.net & News Agencies

 

 

DJIBOUTI — Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed has chosen Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, the son of the country's last democratically-elected president, as Somalia's new prime minister.

 

"The president has signed the nomination paper and met with the prime minister designate," an aide to the new president told Reuters on Friday, February 13.

 

Ahmed will formally announce Sharmarke's nomination before the Djibouti-based Somali parliament later on Friday.

 

Born in Mogadishu in 1964, the tipped premier is the son of Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, Somalia's last democratically-elected president who was shot dead in a military coup in 1969.

 

He belongs to the ***** subclan, the Majarteen, of former president Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, who resigned late last year.

 

The US-based Sharmarke, who holds Somali and Canadian citizenship, has worked with the United Nations.

 

According to Somalia's transitional charter, the president, the prime minister and the parliament speaker have to belong to three different major clans.

 

Sheikh Sharif, a young Islamic scholar who was elected as president by parliament late last month, is a member of the ****** clan.

 

Sharmarke will replace Nur Hassan Hussein, who lost in the presidential election to Sheikh Sharif.

 

According to the charter, Sharmarke will have a month from the moment of his official appointment to pick a cabinet.

 

Welcome

 

Sharmarke's nomination drew plaudits from ordinary Somalis.

 

"I believe he will change a lot on the ground," Ali Abdi Aware, an unsuccessful presidential candidate, told Reuters.

 

"He is a simple man who listens to different ideas. He can keep unity."

 

Sheikh Abdiqadir Ali, a clan elder in the northern port of Bosasso, in northern Puntland province where Sharmarke comes from, echoes a similar view.

 

"We welcome him," he said.

 

"He was not involved in Somali politics and we are sure he will bring peace."

 

Many Somalis believe that Sharmarke would be successful as his father.

 

"We hope the new prime minister will be patriotic and will make Somalia peaceful," Botan Hashi, a clan elder in Gurael town, said.

 

"He is the son of our beloved late President Sharmarke who was just killed because of being honest," he added.

 

"Welcome - like father, like son."

 

But Sharmarke's nomination drew mixed reactions from Somali armed groups.

 

"An unlawful camel never gives birth to lawful ones," said Sheikh Hassan Yucqub, a spokesman for the Al Shebab group, a splitter of the Islamic Courts Union.

 

Shebab, which is designated as a terror group by Washington, has already rejected Sheikh Sharif's election as Somalia's president, describing his government as an illegitimate "puppet" administration put together by foreign powers.

 

But the moderate Islamic Courts movement said Sharmarke could bring positive changes to Somalia.

 

"We hope President Sharif and his new prime minister will not argue like the former government leaders," said spokesman Sheikh Abdirahim Isse Adow.

 

"May Allah make them leaders liked by all."

[Che -Guevara]

Best of luck to him and Sharif. I hope they don't take the path their predecessors did.