Consultative meeting on impeachment put off

The consultative meeting between the government and pro-impeachment MPs put off due to the absence Somali prime minister Omar Abdirashid who is current outside the country.

The gather was scheduled to kick off on Wednesday as the speaker of the parliament mentioned on Tuesday.

Reports say that meeting was postponed till the premier jets back from the abroad.

This comes when the MPs who table the impeachment motion against the president vowed not turn up.

MP Abdullahi Godah Barre speaking to Goobjoog News said that speaker passed by the provisional Constitutional and he wants to use authoritarian system where he (speaker) wants to dump the motion signed by over 90 MPs in dustbin.

“The meeting scheduled to kick off on the seventh of this month would have being based on the acceptance of both sides. The consultation meeting would have commence only when sides accept the proposal but we as pro-impeachment MPs we have rejected to attend the meeting because the speaker has no authority to drop the impeachment motion against the president without our consent” he said.

He said that the impeachment motion can only be terminated in two ways, if court rules against it or when at least two third of Federal MPs against it.

This comes a day after the pro-impeachment MPs declared that they are still determined to impeach the president warning dialogue does not mean they have dropped the bid.

In a seven point statement released Tuesday, the MPs vehemently held to their position that the Speaker violated the constitution in dismissing the motion and called on him to reverse the decision as it was a recipe for lawlessness and disorder in the country.

“Our consent to dialogue must not be construed to mean end of the motion. The motion can only be terminated when the the court rules against it.

Otherwise, the actual procedure is that the motion must be tabled before parliament for members to cast a vote,” read the statement in part.

In what has emerged to be a battle between the impeachment caucus and the speaker, the lawmakers have accused the speaker of not responding to their queries despite correspondence for clarification on the speaker’s reference for dismissal of the motion.

“We cannot accept dialogue with the speaker as long as he holds the view that the motion is dead. The MP’s position is that the motion must be referred to a competent court to decide on it,” said the MPs.

Speaker Mohamed Osman Jawaari last week struck down the motion noting that it did not meet the minimim legal threshold. But the MPs have come out fighting accusing the speaker of usurping the powers of court.

In his ruling, the speaker called for a consultative meeting between parliament, the president and the Prime Minister to dialogue and find a final solution to the impeachment headache.

The president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud this week in New York told the influential magazine Foreign Policy the motion lacked legal basis.