/ 27 January 2009

Somali lawmakers delay presidential vote

Somali lawmakers on Tuesday extended by five days the time period needed to elect a new president after the post fell vacant with last month’s resignation of Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed.

According to the country’s transitional charter, a new president should be elected within 30 days of the position falling vacant. Yusuf stepped down on December 29 and the deadline to elect his replacement expires on Wednesday.

”The majority of parliamentarians agreed on the additional five days, but if we can do it earlier we will,” Parliament speaker Aden Mohamed Nur told a parliamentary session in Djibouti.

Somali politicians are gathering in Djibouti, because of insecurity at home, to elect a new president. They have already expanded Parliament to include moderate Islamist opposition members under a United Nations-mediated deal with the government reached last year.

The Parliament currently comprises 550 seats, up from 275, and the new MPs are expected to be sworn in on Wednesday.

In Somalia, hardline Islamist Shebab militia said on Monday they had taken control of Baidoa town, which hosts Parliament, but the African Union commission chief Jean Ping said the move had little impact on the political process.

”The situation on the ground in Somalia has revealed itself as less serious than we expected,” Ping told reporters on Tuesday at the bloc’s headquarters in Addis Ababa.

The Shebab fighters said they seized Baidoa after Ethiopian troops pulled out at the weekend.

”The occupation of Baidoa is not really a surprise for us and this case was envisaged by Ethiopia,” Ping added.

Ethiopia’s pull-out had stirred fears of a security vacuum in the country still struggling with a leadership crisis. — Sapa-AFP