268 MPs Oppose Garowe Conference
The Somali members of parliament (MPs) who fired parliament speaker, Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden, in December of last year and replaced him with Madobe Nunow Mohamed met today in Mogadishu and voiced their opposition to the 2nd Somali National Constitutional Conference, now being held in Garowe, the capital of the semi-autonomous region of Puntland, saying it does not represent the interest of all Somalis, and is designed to prop up former Speaker Hassan.
At a meeting in the parliament house, the MPs debated the conference, which began today, and the majority agreed that the conference was only designed to benefit the interests of a few individuals, particularly former Speaker Hassan, rather than the country itself.
After the debate, Speaker Madobe ordered the house to take vote of confidence on the Garowe Conference.
“278 MPs attended the meeting. Of those, 268 of them opposed the meeting, six of them supported it, while the four others abstained from voting,” said the speaker, adding that the meeting was not in accordance with the law of Somalia.
In a meeting at parliament house last week, the same MPs accused President Sharif and the head of the United Nations Political Office for Somalia (UNPOS), Ambassador Augustine Mahiga, of not listening to the parliament or seeking a solution to end the conflict over the position of speaker.
One of the MPs who took part in the meeting today and spoke to Somalia Report on the condition of anonymity accused the TFG top officials of misleading the country and at the same time working for the “interest of an individual who lost their reputation with the Somali people,” referring to former speaker Hassan.
“Mahiga, President Sharif and Prime Minister Abdiweli are looking at the friendship they had with Sharif Hassan and they don’t see the 300 MPs who stood up to save this country. Instead, they continue to ignore us and put their support behind Hassan and his cronies who are looting the resources of Somalia," said the MP.
“We are calling for the leaders of the government to be careful about anything that can bring more problems to the Somali people. We are telling Mahiga to stop interfering with the Somali issues and remain in his office or else we shall take a strong decision against all of them,” he added.
The international community has not yet recognized the parliament's decision to fire Hassan who still attends some official functions on behalf of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of Somalia, enabling him to attend the Garowe Conference.
The MPs believe they have replaced Sharif Hassan, but the UNPOS office which organized the meeting still recognizes him as the official speaker of the parliament, undermining the power of the parliament. Adding to the mix, during the recent Somali International Contact Group (ICG) conference, which was held in Djibouti, the members also supported Sharif Hassan.
Representatives of the TFG, Puntland administration, Galmudug regional state, pro-government Islamic moderate group of Ahlu Sunna Wal Jamaa (ASWJ), United Nations (UN), African Union (AU), Intergovernmental Authority for Development (IGAD) and Djibouti are in Garowe to attend the three day meeting.
The 'fired' speaker of the parliament, Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden, said during the opening ceremonies, “we are here in order to agree upon the constitution which will be used to govern this country,” and urged the conflicting sides to think about how to reduce the arguments and misunderstandings in the country and to solve everything using reconciliation.
Somalia PM Abdiweli said that there is need to move from the reconciliation period to a fair government, which will reach across the country, adding that a federal administration is very important towards the TFG goal.
Among the other senior officer who gave speeches were Puntland President Abdirahman Mahamed Farole, Galmudug President Mahamad Ahmed Aalin, and the minister of religious affairs from Djibouti, Haamid Abdi Suldaan who all agreed that unity and the constitution are very important for Somalia.
The conference follows the first meeting in Mogadishu which focused on creating a constitution for Somalia and how to move from transitional period toward a complete government.
