Somali lawmakers vote in favor of parliament’s enlargement

Monday, January 26, 2009

Mogadishu, Somalia (APA) - Members of the Somali Transitional Federal Parliament on Monday unanimously voted for the extension of the parliament to pave the way for an all-inclusive legislature which will elect a speaker and a president within the next few days.

Before voting began, Djibouti’s representative to the Somali peace talks and the minister for Justice Hamid Abdi Sultan urged Somali lawmakers to show a great responsibility to safe the war-weary Somali people from renewed civil war.

After a lengthy discussion, the acting Somali president and parliament speaker Sheikh Aden Mohamed Nur Madoobe announced that Somali legislators unanimously voted in favor of the extension of the parliament.

“Two hundred and twenty lawmakers have participated in today’s meeting, 211 of them agreed to enlarge the parliament, six against while three abstained, so the parliament is extended from now on and recently 275 members from the opposition Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS) will join us” the speaker and acting president Sheikh Aden Mohamed Nur Madoobe told lawmakers on Monday.

On Sunday evening, the Islamist-dominated ARS nominated Islamic courts chairman Sheikh Sharif Sheik Ahmed as its sole candidate for the upcoming presidential election.

The international community-backed Somali peace process in Djibouti is the latest of 15 failed attempts to look for a lasting solution and a national functioning government for Somalia which has been engaged in bloody civil wars for nearly two decades.