Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Somali House 'sacks' absent Speaker

Somali legislators have elected Mr Madobe Nunow Mohamed as temporary Speaker.

The 283 MPs Tuesday started the business of the House in the absence of the Speaker, Mr Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden, and his two deputies.

One of the MPs present in the chambers, Mr Omar Islow, had stated that the legislators had invited the second Deputy Speaker, who was in Mogadishu, to attend and chair the meeting.

Mr Islow pointed out that the Speaker and his first deputy were out of the country.

Mr Nunow Mohamed is the current chairman of Parliament’s Constitutional Committee.

As soon as Mr Nunow Mohamed assumed the temporary leadership, some legislators tabled a motion against the Speaker.

By a show of hands, 280 MPs voted for the dismissal of Mr Aden and his two deputies while two voted against the motion. One MP abstained.

Critics have questioned the legality of a meeting that was not chaired by the Speaker or any of the deputies, and attended by 283 out of 550 legislators.

The move by the rebel MPs was likely to throw the Transitional Federal Government into another constitutional crisis.

Source: Africa Review

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