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Somali president reinstates prime minister, cabinet
By ABDULKADIR KHALIF,NATION Correspondent and Agencies
Posted Thursday, May 20 2010 at 21:30
MOGADISHU, Thursday
Somalia’s president reinstated Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Sharmarke and his cabinet on Thursday after days of uncertainty following a parliamentary vote of no confidence in them.
President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed asked Mr Sharmarke and his ministers to step down after the vote on Sunday. A total 280 MPs had chosen to sack them, according to former speaker Sheikh Aden Madobe, who has since resigned.
“Why I replaced the prime minister was because I was referring to a letter from the former speaker, but I have ordered the government to continue its duties because when I discussed with lawyers, they said it was unconstitutional,” Ahmed said in a statement.
Mr Sharmarke refused to leave his position and maintained that parliament’s move was unconstitutional. The chamber, whose business has been paralysed because many legislators live in Kenya, Europe and America because of security fears in the war-riven country, met for the first time on Sunday, since December.
Late today, a statement read by the Presidency’s Information Director, Abdirashid Khalif Hashi, confirmed that Mr Sharmarke and his cabinet will continue serving the Transitional Federal Government. “President Ahmed consulted legal experts and legislators and it has become clear that the government could not be dismissed,” said Mr Hashi.
A source from Villa Somalia, the state house in Mogadishu, indicated this morning that President Ahmed had a meeting on Wednesday night with Mr Sharmarke and some cabinet members. They reportedly discussed the difference between the president and the PM.
On Monday, President Ahmed announced that he was to appoint a new prime minister to form a more efficient government. However, on Tuesday, PM Sharmarke rejected the remarks by the president and insisted that he could only lose his post through resignation or unfavourable vote by the parliament.
“I can not accept my government dismissed through a mere statement,” said the premier. “I can only lose my job through a legal means, including resignation or via parliamentary vote of no-confidence,” he added. Those present in the meeting on Wednesday night included the three deputy prime ministers and some key Cabinet members.
And although the PM insisted that his government remains legitimate, President Ahmed reportedly urged the Cabinet to resign so that he could appoint a new premier to form a government. Nevertheless, PM Sharmarke resisted the proposal.
Before this crisis, the Speaker of the Parliament, Sheikh Aden Mohamed Nur alias Sheikh Aden Madobe resigned on Monday, paving the way for the parliament to elect a new leadership. Sheikh Aden Madobe encountered a rebellion by furious MPs that forced him to abandon a session, on Sunday, 16th of May.
After leaving the session, the embattled parliamentary speaker announced that the government of PM Sharmarke collapsed through a vote of no-confidence on Sunday, which the premier rejected as baseless. Meanwhile, a roadside bomb killed a Ugandan soldier working with the African Union peacekeeping mission in the Somali capital on Thursday, a spokesman said.
The AMISOM mission has just under 7,000 troops helping to bolster the lawless country’s transitional government. The African Union has asked its member states to boost these numbers but only Uganda and Burundi have done so. “We have lost one soldier after a roadside bomb blast struck our convoy,” AMISOM spokesman Major Barigye Ba-hoku told Reuters.
“It was a barbaric attack by the anti-peace elements who don’t like peace for Somalia.” The dead soldier was part of a group carrying out daily patrols near the port. Somalia has had no effective central government for nearly two decades and the government controls no more than a few blocks of Mogadishu with the AU troops’ help.
In a separate attack, two children were killed when a mortar fired in the direction of the parliament landed on a house. The Horn of African country has been deprived of effective central government for nearly 20 years and Ahmed’s Western-backed administration controls no more than a few blocks of Mogadishu, with the help of African Union troops.
