The Somali parliament on Wednesday (May 21st) formed a sub-committee tasked with finalising the country's provisional constitution before it is voted on in a nationwide referendum and preparing electoral laws for the 2016 elections.
Lawmaker Abdi Ali Hassan was elected as the chair of the committee and Elmi Mohamed Nur as his deputy, Africa Review reported.
Hassan said he was confident his committee would succeed in fulfilling its duties. "The current parliament will have to be replaced in 2016 by one-man, one-vote elected legislators," he said.
Speaker of Parliament Mohamed Osman Jawari told the committee members they have only 13 months to complete the job "so that Somalia gets ready for a democratic election by August 2016".
"We expect you to undertake thorough studies and research in view of coming up with a formula that can produce free-and-fair elections," he said, adding that lawmakers should "refer to experiences drawn from past elections and the more recent electoral processes in Somaliland and Puntland".
He said that the government will establish joint committee that will widely consult with the public and the authorities across the country.
Meanwhile on Thursday, Prime Minister Abdiweli Sheikh Ahmed chaired a meeting of five sub-committees and discussed how to ensure the implementation of the government’s 2014 Work Planand the progress of Vision 2016 and the New Deal.
Source/Fuente: http://sabahionline.com/en_GB/articles/hoa/articles/newsbriefs/2014/05/2...
