From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Mon May 17 2010 - 06:31:40 EDT
Somali leaders at loggerheads, parliament in disarray
17 May, 2010 - 2:00:37 PM
Somalia's transition parliament speaker Sheikh Adan Mohammed Nur Madobe said
on Sunday that the current government led by Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid
Sharma'arke has failed to garner confidence vote in the parliament.
Addressing a press conference in Mogadishu, Sheikh Madobe, who seemed upset,
urged President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed to appoint a new premier within
30 days because the tenure of the current office holder has expired on
February.
"The parliament carried out vote of no confidence on the government and 280
lawmakers voted in against, 30 voted in support and 8 abstained," he said.
"The government failed in its task, that's why I ask the President to
appoint a new competent prime minister," he added.
However, PM Sharma'arke and his backers from the anti-Madobe lot rejected
the claims by the speaker, terming the voting as non-existence.
Earlier on, the parliament sitting which reopened Sunday for the first time
since many months was marred by bitter feud between members with some even
shouting to their loudest voice in protest against the speaker.
The lawmakers announced that they would appoint an interim speaker to lead
the house in the election of a new chair. Sheikh Madobe has maintained that
he is holding the chair for the people of Somalia and would only relinquish
it when on public demand.
The bickering in the parliament has made impossible for the fragile
UN-backed government to carry on with its work of establishing rule of law
in a country that is most controlled by powerful insurgent group.
Ahmed's government, which was formed barely more than a year ago in
neighbouring Djibouti, is the 15 attempt by international community to erect
an effective administration in the Horn of African country that has been
without a central government for nearly two decades.
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