Somalia Parliament on Saturday voted to sack the country’s Prime Minister and his cabinet after months of political wrangle between the President and Prime Minister.
Prime Minister Abdiweli Sheikh Ahmed, an economist who has been in charge since December 2013, fell out with President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud last week over a cabinet re-shuffle, prompting the no-confidence vote.
The session which was attended by 235 MPs, 151 Parliamentarians voted to oust Prime Minister while 80 MPs voted to regain confidence for the Premier.
The frequent squabbles between Somalia’s presidents and prime ministers are rooted in a complex constitution, designed to encourage power-sharing, which forces an elected president to handpick a prime minister from a rival clan and then grant him large powers.
Since 2002, ten Prime Ministers were forced out from their positions after a disagreement with the President.
In recent months, the judicial institutions- who are independent from the government- were raising complaints about the minister. The chief justice accused the Ministry of Justice of interference in the independence of the judiciary. In July, the president approved appointment of a new attorney general appointed by, after the predecessor Abdikadir Mohamed Muse was dismissed by Farah Abdulkadir. But the chief justice questioned the legality of Muse’s dismissal, and promised an investigation. In turn, the attorney general’s office has claimed that dozens of judges are operating without having been properly appointed, with the president dismissing 21 judges in October.
Reliable sources told Horseed Media that the President sent a jet to Nairobi to pick 35 members who were not present at the Parliament building.
Horseed Media
