Somalia Parliament impeaches Prime Minister in no-confidence vote

Somalia’s Parliament has ousted Prime Minister Hassan Khaire, throwing into confusion the country’s electoral plan.

After a motion of no-confidence was Saturday tabled in the Lower House, the legislative body that routinely checks the federal government, 170 MPs voted for it.

Speaker Mursal Abdulrahman announced the outcome of the vote after the closure of the session saying, “In a quorum of 178 legislators, the government lost the vote of confidence by 170.”

This means that President Farmaajo will have to sack Khaire, a former oil executive who has been in office since his nomination in March 2017.

He had been the longest serving PM since Somalia stabilised from years of war.

GOVERNMENT FAILURES

The Speaker said the impeachment resulted from the government’s failure to secure a general election scheduled for 2020 and a presidential election scheduled for 2021.

He also cited failure to guarantee national security, a review of the Constitution and establishment of a special status for the capital, Mogadishu, in the country’s chosen federal system.

Credited for returning Somalia to eligibility to borrow from international lenders and purging ghost workers in military, Khaire’s failure to oversee a constitutional review and continued wrangles with federal states may have marked him for removal.

His ambitions, said to be presidential, were always going to make him a target.

In Somalia, the Lower House has been siding with President Farmaajo as seen when it passed controversial electoral regulations that the President then signed.

Those laws were, however, opposed by federal state presidents as well as opposition political parties. The Senate had alarmingly claimed the regulations were doctored before they were passed.

PRESIDENT’S ACCEPTANCE

On Saturday, President Farmaajo commended Khaire on his work and said he had accepted the decision of the Lower House.

He said he preferred the unity of all State institutions but had to give his endorsement.

“Differences between State institutions weaken statehood. Therefore, I had to accept the decision of our Parliament, which forms the base of our statehood,” the President said, and promised to nominate a new premier.

Farmaajo was ousted in 2011 as Prime Minister in a bid for President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed to make peace with legislators and have his term extended. However, Ahmed lost subsequent elections to Hassan Sheikh Mohamud in 2012.

The dramatic development came as the people in the Horn of Africa country looked up to the leaders of the Federal Government of Somalia (FGS) and the Federal Member States (FMS) who held a meeting at Dusamareb town, capital of Galmudug Sate of Somalia, from July 17-22.

The leaders declared the need to form a committee to study and propose election modalities before August 15.

They agreed to have elections on time but failed to decide which model was suitable.