Members of Somalia's new parliament were sworn in on Thursday to officially start their duties during a ceremony in the capital, Mogadishu. Out of 329 deputies, 290 took part in the swearing-in, the Somali News Agency stated. According to the country's constitution, the new deputies will elect in the first session one of the oldest members to chair the session until a speaker and two deputy speakers are elected. The oldest member of the new parliament is Abdisalan Dabana'ad. The legislature will begin its preparations for the elections of the speaker and then the president on Saturday. The chairperson of the Somali Federal Election Committee, Muse Guelleh Yusuf, hailed the event, held at the heavily guarded Mogadishu airport compound, as "a major breakthrough in the Somali electoral process." "It was a historic breakthrough ending a long and exhausting electoral process that lasted nearly two years. Some 290 lawmakers have been sworn in today and the rest are expected to be sworn in in the coming days," Yusuf said. But, he added, "we are missing some 25 seats which remain unfilled in the Hirshabelle and Jubaland states." Elections for lower and upper house lawmakers were scheduled to be completed before President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed's term expired in February 2021. But the elections dragged on, delayed by political and electoral disputes at both the regional and national levels. With the new parliament seated, Somali political observers are breathing a bit easier. "This ends an electoral process that has dragged on for [too] long ... largely due to the political dispute between President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed and his prime minister, Mohamed Hussein Roble. And now, as a new parliament is in place, I think it is a relief and it is a new dawn for Somalia politics," Somali diplomat Shafic Yusuf Omar told VOA Somali. The swearing-in followed months of international pressure to complete the elections and choose a new president. The United States, which has funneled billions of dollars in aid to Somalia, had imposed sanctions and visa restrictions on unnamed Somali officials if they disregarded the election timetable. Once completed, the new parliament — which contains 275 lower-house MPs and 54 from the upper house — will jointly elect a president. The process of choosing lawmakers, who are picked by clan elders rather than direct election, was riven with threats and bloodshed, including the killing of a young female candidate, Amina Mohamed, who was a vocal critic of the government. A date for selecting a new president is yet to be set, but a new government must be in place by May 17 if the country is to continue receiving budget support from the International Monetary Fund, the lender said in February. — Agencies
