NAIROBI (AFP) — Somali politicians gathered on Sunday for a meeting that will create an expanded parliament to include moderate Islamists and pave the way for electing a new president after a drawn-out power struggle.
More than 1,000 Somalis arrived for the talks being held in neighbouring Djibouti due to the continuing state of insecurity in Somalia, according to participants interviewed by telephone from Nairobi.
The meeting will announce on Monday the doubling of parliamentary seats from the current 275 to accommodate members of the moderate Islamist opposition Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS) and civil society groups.
The Djibouti-based ARS led by Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed has been engaged in United Nations-sponsored peace talks with the Somali transitional government to end the country's 17 years of conflict.
Sixteen candidates have declared an interest in succeeding president Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed who resigned last month.
Top contenders include ARS leader Ahmed, current Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein and ex-premier Ali Mohamed Gedi.
Parliament will vote for president after the new legislators are sworn in, with either Hussein or Ahmed being the likely winners.
Gedi returned to the limelight of Somali politics last week when he announced his candidature. He was forced to resign in 2007 after months of a bruising power struggle with then president Yusuf.
Hussein, who was appointed premier in November 2007, had also been at loggerheads with Yusuf, notably over attempts to reach a reconciliation deal with the ARS.
Yusuf's departure was seen as easing the obstacles to solving the Somali conflict which has been complicated by the government infighting.
Of the additional 275 seats, 200 will go the the ARS and the remaining 75 to civil society groups.
However, Asmara-based hardline Islamists led by Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys and radical Shebab fighters in Somalia have rejected the process, saying it is manipulated by foreigners.
The hardliners who had insisted on Ethiopian troop withdrawal to engage in peace talks are yet to do so even with the pull-out of Ethiopia's forces from Mogadishu and instead engaged in more battles with the African Union peacekeepers there.
AU Commission chief Jean Ping urged Somalis to "re-commit themselves to dialogue, rise to the daunting challenges facing their country and bring to a definite end the violence and suffering."
Ping made the remarks on Saturday as he condemned a suicide car bomb attack aimed at AU forces in Mogadishu, but which missed its target and instead killed at least 22 civilians in the attack and the ensuing gunbattles.
Conflict in Somalia and power struggles that erupted since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre have scuppered numerous initiatives to restore national stability.
No comments:
Post a Comment