Somali president Sharif Sheikh Ahmed and Parliament speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden clashed on approving a newly nominated Prime Minister Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed. The tension rose after speaker of parliament Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden postponed a vote to approve the PM after the assembly descended into chaos.
The parliament meeting which was scheduled to hold on Saturday was deferred into Wednesday to conduct a secret vote rather than an open one.

But Somali president Sharif Sheikh Ahmed on Sunday indicated the secret vote was unconstitutional.

A press statement released by President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed said the 1960 constitution decreed the legislative body should express confidence or no confidence in the prime minister in an open vote requiring a simple majority.

Ahmed’s office accused the speaker of parliament of being an obstacle at the assembly session to approve a new Prime Minister Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed.

"The Somali President calls upon the Speaker ... to uphold the law and to not obstruct lawmakers from discharging their solemn Constitutional duties, especially at these critical times when we need a government that can stand to address the mammoth tasks facing it,” a copy of statement reads.

On Wednesday, the speaker stated that 142 MPs endorsed the motion of voting for confidence for the new prime minister by show of hand while 45 legislators submitted another motion asking for secret ballot.

At the end of the session, he announced that according to parliamentary bylaws, the vote will be a secret.

Few hours after the presidency’s statement, Parliament speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden issued a press release accusing the president of creating violence and chaos with the Somali government.

"The president had fulfilled his term of office to nominate a new PM, we are asking in a respectful way to avoid parliaments’ duties. He has to stop the pressure and intervention into the parliament", the speaker said in the statement of which AfricaNews obtained a copy.

He called on the United Nations, the African Union, IGAD, LAS, OIC, EU and the United States and all other friendly states to interfere and solve the political disputes within the government.

He said in the statement that the difference can harm the existence of the constitutional institutions of the Somali weak government.

The speaker determined that the vote of confidence for the new prime minister will take place on Wednesday in secret rather than openly.

"I call on the AU peacekeepers in Mogadishu to tighten the security during Wednesday’s parliament meeting", he added. He urged the international community to send observers to see how Wednesday’s vote will take place.

A former finance and deputy prime minister Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden was the first parliament speaker of Somali Transitional Federal established in neighboring Kenya in 2004.

The man who deputises for Somali president when he travels or if he is incapacitated is Somalia’s second most powerful politician. He missed the office in 2007 but regained the office in May 2010.

Earlier in October, Somali president Sharif Sheikh Ahmed appointed a Somali-American to be the new prime minister to replace Somali-Canadian Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, who resigned last month.

Sharmake resigned after a long-running feud with the president. The new PM told members of parliament on Wednesday he came free of political baggage.

If the MPs approve Mohamed; he will be the second prime minister of the two-year-old Somali government led by a former Islamist Sharif Sheikh Ahmed.

The Horn of Africa nation has not had an affective government since warlords overthrew long time dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.

The Al-Qaeda linked group of Al-Shabaab is controlling most of southern Somalia and parts of Mogadishu, where AU peacekeeping force with government soldiers are patrolling only the presidential palace, airport and seaport.

Rohosafi, English News Staff
Email: englishnews@live.com