DEVELOPING! POLLS DATE & TERM EXTENSION: Somali Parliament Ousts PM, Hassan Ali Khaire

By Francis Otucu and Agencies

The Somali parliament has Saturday passed a vote of no-confidence against the government of Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire.

According Voice of America’s Harun MAruf, Minister of Internal Security Mohamed Abukar Islow who is one of the MPs supporting the PM earlier suggested the ‘no-confidence motion’ is linked to the PM’s position that elections take place on schedule.

Islow accuses the Speaker of plotting a 2-year term extension. As a result, Somali Parliament resolved to oust Khaire after 170 MPs voted in favor of no-confidence vote and 8 against, Speaker Mohamed Mursal. To this, Mursal called on President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo to appoint a new PM who can lead the country to popular election.

Analysts suggest, If that is the case, it means that both pro-government MPs and the opposition bloc in Parliament teamed up to oust the PM.

President Mohammed Abdullahi Farmaajo has acceptedto name new PM with immediate effect.

TRACING THE ROW

In December 2018, Mursal failed to reach an understanding with President Farmaajo and Prime Minister Khaire over the latter’s stance in the South West elections.

This, after The Speaker held separate meetings with the President and Prime Minister to discuss the issues.

Abdirahman also met his Deputy Mahad Awad

In the meeting, the Speaker is said to have tabled three issues of concern to the President and Prime Minister.

He also demanded that the Federal government play a neutral role in the upcoming Southwest State elections.

He pointed out that the government had publicly shown to favor two candidates in the race at the expense of regional presidential hopeful and former Alshabaab deputy leader Mukhtar Robow.

Federal government had earlier protested Robow’s candidature.

As a result, Abdirahman asked the government not to send back the 100 federal police officers earlier sent to Baidoa to maintain law and order in the polls while Robow Coalition Questioned New Southwest Poll Dates.

Since then, there have been concerns that Alshabaab may try to disrupt the polls.

The Speaker also called for the installment of the “disbanded” House Finance and Budget committee.

His Deputy Mahad Salad had disbanded the committee over a controversial report on alleged fraud of upto $40M at the Ministry of Finance and the Banaadir Regional Administration.

He has declared his Deputy’s decision as null and void.

The report threatened to divide the House with analyst pointing fingers at possible machinations by the Prime Minister’s Office and the Villa Somalia.

This was the first time Speaker Abdirahman found himself in a collision course with the President and Prime Minister since he took office in April 2018.

He had replaced Mohamed Osman Jawari who was accused of aligning himself with opposition lawmakers who were allegedly planning a no-confidence motion against the government of Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire.

However MPs who support the prime minister brought a no-confidence motion against Jawari, which eventually forced him to step down after nearly a month of politica.