Lower House Speaker validates MPs elected from Gedo region

GOOBJOOG NEWS|MOGADISHU: Somalia’s Lower House Speaker, Sheikh Adan Madobe, has certified the 16 MPs picked in El-Wak as the legitimately elected MPs for Gedo region.

Madobe insisted that the MPs picked in El-Wak were elected in accordance with the election process of the Federal Electoral Committee and that their election was conducted by the State Indirect Election Implementation Committee, while Garbaharey MPs were not elected by the state election commission, therefore, earning the El-Wak-elected MPs a bonafide status in the House of the People.

The move by the newly-elected Speaker effectively locks out the MPs elected in Garbaharey town in a parallel process backed by the outgoing President. President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo had decreed in April that the parallel elections in Elwak and Garbaharey were inconsistent and in contravention with the September 17 election deal signed in Mogadishu.