Somalia’s newly elected two Houses of Parliament will hold their first session today after being officially sworn in on Thursday.
The two interim Speakers sent a message to members of both houses of parliament, telling them to attend the meetings to discuss the process of electing the House Speakers.
Lower House Interim Speaker Abdisalam Haji Ahmed “Dhaban-cad” called regional and federal election commissions to complete elections for the unelected MP seats in the Lower House so that the Speaker house can be elected.
Sixteen seats from the Gedo region have yet to be decided, in addition to two seats suspended by FEIT nullified two seats for electoral irregularities. One of those seats was won by former intelligence chief Fahad Yasin. In total, 25 seats are yet to be filled.
Dhaban-cad, the oldest MP in the 11th parliament, said that no lawmaker could be absent from the assembly until the speaker and his deputies were elected.
Somalia’s parliamentary and presidential elections have been delayed for more than a year after President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed failed to hold elections when his mandate expired in February 2021.
