The Somali legislative body on Wednesday unanimously endorsed the peace agreement between the transitional government and a major opposition group, and started the impeachment proceeding against President Abdulahi Yusuf Ahmed, accusing him of "being an obstacle to peace", the Speaker said Thursday.
A hundred and fifty-three parliamentarians present voted unanimously in favor of the agreement between the government and opposition coalition, the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS), led by the moderate Islamist leader Sheik Sharif sheik Ahmed, said the Speaker Sheikh Adan Madobe after voting in the southern town of Baidoa, the seat of parliament.
A UN-brokered peace talks spearheaded by Somali Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein in neighboring Djibouti have led to a power sharing deal, but Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf has expressed dissatisfaction with the agreement, characterizing it as "a clan deal."
The agreement, finalized in Djibouti last week, has been one of the sticking points in the relations between the top leaders.
Under the agreement the current transitional parliament will be doubled, the government's interim period extended and a new leadership for the war-torn Horn of Africa country is to be elected at the beginning of the new year.
At the Somali parliament's session Thursday an impeachment motion was read by lawmakers who accused the president, among others, of being an obstacle to peace and of favoring some of the Somali communities while side-lining others.
The parliament speaker Madobe told lawmakers that the president will be given a chance to defend himself before any vote to impeach him which will be carried out later this week.
"I will write to the president and send a copy of the motion and an invitation for him to come before the parliament before any vote on the motion is cast," the speaker said.
The Somali president has, in the meantime, been meeting some lawmakers and his newly appointed prime minister at his residence in Baidoa, 245 km west of Mogadishu.
President Yusuf Tuesday named the new Premier Mohamed Mohamoud Guled after he sacked Hussein Sunday, but the parliament on Monday rejected the decision and reinstated Hussein giving confidence in his cabinet. |
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