Somalia’s lawmakers on Monday voted to extend the mandate of President Mohamed Abdullahi’s government by two years in an attempt to resolve a political crisis after the country failed to hold a scheduled election in February, reported Africa News.
President Abdullahi’s four-year presidential term ended on Feb. 8, but, he continued in office after the government could not arrange for elections as agreed in a September 2020 deal with regional governments. The leaders failed to reach a consensus about how to carry out the election process.
On Monday’s vote in the lower house of parliament, a total of 149 members of parliament, or 54% of all lawmakers, voted for the move, while three were against and one abstaining.
Under Somali law, the next step would be to get the proposal passed in the upper house of parliament.
“President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed has urged the citizens to seize the historic chance to choose their destiny as the House of the People voted to return the elections mandate to the people,” the presidency said in a Twitter post.
The vote to conduct an election in two years’ time, which would require the federal government and president to stay in office, came amid international pressure on Somali leaders to end the stalemate.
The United Nations has warned Somalia to conduct an election as soon as possible. The latest round of talks to resolve Somalia’s election impasse failed last Wednesday. The federal government blamed leaders of Puntland and Jubbaland regional governments for the failure.
The opposition is likely to reject Monday’s development as it accuses Farmajo of deliberately frustrating the election process to extend his rule.
The poll deadlock has plunged the African country into a political crisis. It is feared that terrorist group Al Shabab might exploit the disagreement to further undermine the already fragile security of the Horn of Africa.
