Chaos in Somali parliament delays vote on PM

[General Duke]

Chaos in Somali parliament delays vote on PM

 

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

 

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somalia's parliamentary speaker postponed on Wednesday a vote to endorse the newly appointed prime minister after the Horn of Africa nation's assembly descended into chaos.

 

Lawmakers got into shouting matches over whether the vote should be conducted in secret or openly.

 

President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed last week picked U.S.-educated former diplomat Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed to lead his government after the previous premier quit, paying the price for failing to rein in a three-year Islamist insurgency.Postponing the vote until Saturday, Speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden proposed that it be held in secret.Once nominated by the president, the prime minister's appointment must be approved by parliament.

 

Earlier, Mohamed told legislators he came free of political baggage. "I do not belong to any group, religious or political, or any other group other than I am a Somali citizen who wants to take part in the development of this nation which has had no effective government for about two decades," he said.

 

Some analysts cited a widening divide between Ahmed and the speaker, who deputises for the president when he travels or if he is incapacitated, and said the postponement was only a delaying tactic.

 

"There is a big rift between the president who wants members of parliament to approve the new prime minister and the speaker who seems to have a different view judging by what happened today," said Ahmed Elmi, a Mogadishu-based political analyst.

 

"I believe this will hinder this already weak government (effort) to move forward," he said.

 

Horn of Africa experts say the Western-backed interim government has failed to make any significant strides towards stabilising anarchic, war-torn Somalia. Critics say the government is plagued by internal feuding and corruption.Ahmed's administration is propped up by African Union peacekeepers in Mogadishu, but Islamist rebels control large chunks of the capital and much of south and central Somalia.

 

(Reporting by Abdi Guled; Writing by Richard Lough; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

 

Source: Reuters

[General Duke]

Somalia: lawmakers end session with no PM confidence-vote

 

Wednesday, 20 October 2010 20:44 Written by GAROWEONLINE

 

Prime Minister-nominee Mohamed Abdullahi

Somali legislators met in the parliament to debated the confidence vote for the new Prime Minister Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo who was appointed earlier this month by TFG President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, Radio Garowe reports.

 

Reports say there was disagreement between the 380 lawmakers who attending Tuesdays session regarding the confidence vote.

 

The meeting that was chaired by the Speaker Sharif Hassan Aden also attended by President Sharif and newly- nominated Prime Minister. Both the President and Parliament Speaker of TFG appealed to the federal MPs to vote Farmajo as the country’s new Prime Minister so he could form a new government.

 

"I appointed the new Prime Minister for the reason that he can bring a solution to the crisis that TFG experiencing now, am appealing you to vote for him," President Sharif told the lawmakers.

 

The 48-year-old Farmajo is a former employee of Somalia's Foreign Ministry and served as an embassy diplomat in Washington. Until his appointment, Mohamed lived and worked in the U.S. state of New York.

 

Prime Minister has publicly opposed to the foundation of the TFG -- the 4.5 clan power-sharing system. But Farmajo quickly released a statement Monday saying the media "exaggerated" his 4.5 comments.

 

President Sharif was reportedly frustrated by Farmajo's slip-up, and on Tuesday, Sharif defended what he called, "No interfering with the current constitution unless through public referendum".

 

Prime Minister-nominee Farmajo, who addressed the MPs on Tuesday's session, said: "I will name an administration based on 4.5 system which the government [TFG] is based on, which seems is a solution at this moment. I will put much effort to find ways to work with the parliament."

 

Farmajo specifically named a few major tasks he planned to accomplish, including providing money and services to the TFG security forces and offering peace talks to the insurgents like Al Shabaab.

 

"If they [insurgents] refuse peace, we will remove them from Mogadishu and take the war to the outside regions," PM-nominee Mohamed Farmajo from New York told Somali TFG lawmakers in Mogadishu.