First Somali Youth Parliament Launches in Mogadishu, Elects Speaker
The First Somali Youth Parliament has been formed and held its first session in Mogadishu yesterday after much deliberations and preparations for close to two months.
The parliament consists of 275 members who are between the ages of 16 and 30. They are all drawn from universities in Somalia. It is worth mentioning that 84 members out of the 275 are young women which represent 30% of the youth parliament.
The top agenda of the session was to elect a new speaker and two deputies who will be managing the affairs of the parliament. The session was chaired by Hamdi Haji Ali, the youngest youth parliamentarian who had been elected as the interim speaker. Three candidates declared their intentions to vie for the position of the speaker, namely Yonis Abdirahman Mohamud, Mohamed Ahmed Haji and Mahdi Abshir Omar.
The election exercise kicked at mid-day as the names of the MPs were being called from the podium and then MPs coming to the ballot boxes to cast their votes in favor of whoever they wished to elect as the speaker.
When the electoral commission announced the results, it was clear that a second round was necessary as no candidate secured two thirds majority of the votes. Mahdi Abshir Omar got 105 votes, Yonis Abdirahman 99 votes, while Mohamed Ahmed garnered 37 votes, while four votes were spoiled. There were 246 MPs in the sitting.
Since no candidate secured two thirds of the vote, the two candidates with the most votes, Mahdi Abshir and Yonis Abdirahman proceeded to the second round, this time the electoral commission decided to conduct the vote by show of hand.
But before they could announce the results of the second round, candidate Mahdi Abshir withdrew his candidacy, citing family issues, paving way for Yonis Abdirahman Mohamud to be declared as the winner.
It was a joyous mood in the hall when the caretaker speaker officially handed over the reign to the newly elected speaker, Hon. Yonis Abdirahman who thanked all those who participated in the vote and pledged to work towards a united and vibrant youth in Somalia.
Prof. Shirwa, the head of the civil society organizations in Somalia congratulated Yonis for his new role, hailing this as a real platform for the youth in Somalia “I would urge you Mr. Speaker that you shouldn’t lie to your members, and you should be accommodative to all your members whether they voted for you or against you” said Shirwa who also recognized the Youth Parliament as the first one of its kind in Somalia.
Prof. Yahye Ali Farah, the president of ISU University congratulated the newly elected speaker and praised the maturity they showed during the election and also told them the parliament showed the bright future of the Somali youth at large.
Abshir Ahmed who is the founding father of the youth parliament urged the young parliamentarians to represent youth views to the decision makers on the local, regional and national level.
He also added that the youth parliament will provide a forum in which young people in Somalia can express their own opinions and encouraged the young parliamentarians to develop a productive working relationship with their national MPs.
The election of the two deputy speakers will be held on in the coming week as scheduled by the electoral committee.
By Abdinasir Bashir Ahmed
Correction: December 12, 2014
In our earlier story we erroneously indicated that the interim speaker of the Youth Parliament was Saynab Abdullahi. We have however established that Hamdi Haji Ali has been the interim speaker until the election of the new speaker Hon. Yonis Abdirahman Mohamud. We take the earliest opportunity to apologize for the misidentification.
Goobjoog News