Somalia’s parliament elects deputy speakers in tight race

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Somalia’s newly-installed lawmakers chose the deputy speakers of parliament on Thursday in a vote that ran long hours, a day after the House for the speaker of the Parliament,.

Abdiweli Sheikh Ibrahim Muday who won the first deputy speaker has garnered the most votes during the third round election, emerging ahead of Somali President’s ally Farah Abdulkadir.

Four candidates who are Khadija Mohamed Diriya,Farah Shaikh Abdiqadir, Saed Husain Eid and Abdiweli Sheikh Ibrahim Muday qualified for the second round but later both Eid and Diriya dropped their bids.

Thursday’s vote by 259 lawmakers also saw the re-election of Mahad Abdalla Awad as second deputy parliament speaker.

Today’s election of both Muday and Awad was reached after third round of voting.

The election took place at the Parliament hall in the capital under a tight security as the main streets of Mogadishu are blocked by government forces for the second consecutive day due to the elections.

The Both Upper and Lower House members were sworn in late December following a three-month long vote, which is yet to be concluded as elections for the breakaway region of Somaliland are still ongoing.

The lower house consists of 275 members while the upper house is made up of 54 members.

Only 259 of the 275 parliamentary seats were filled, because some legislators had not yet been elected or taken office in the country’s tumultuous elections, which started on November 5.