Somalia: New PM Assigned, Plan for National Elections Announced

By Staff, Agencies

Somalia's President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed appointed Mohamed Hussein Roble as a new prime minister hours after brokering an agreement with regional leaders for elections next year that abandons a promised one-person, one-vote model.

Mohamed's office announced late Thursday the appointment of Mohamed Hussein Roble, a Swedish-trained civil engineer and political neophyte, and "wished him to take duties and tasks ahead with diligence".

He fills a vacancy left when former premier Hassan Ali Khaire was removed by parliament in July for failing to pave the way for fully democratic elections due before February 2021.

The foreign-backed government in Mogadishu has been in drawn-out negotiations with Somalia's federal states over how to proceed with parliamentary and presidential elections.

The process, however, has been held-up by political infighting between the president and the country's regional leaders.

Somalia had set itself the goal of holding its first fully democratic, one-man one-vote election since 1969 -- as opposed to a complex system in which special delegates pick lawmakers who then vote for the president.

But an agreement reached between the president, five regional leaders and the mayor of Mogadishu has conceded that such a vote would be impossible within the timeframe remaining before Somalia's parliament expires in November, and the president’s term ends in February.

In an official communique, the negotiators said delegates from Somalia's myriad clans would elect the 275 MPs of the lower house, which in turn chooses the president.

While the process mirrors the last election held in 2017, it will go a bit further in terms of inclusivity, with 27,775 delegates voting -- almost twice as many as last time.

No timeline was given, and it remains unclear what role the country's independent election commission will play, with the federal and state governments to appoint their own agencies to oversee their respective polls.

The plan still needs to be approved by Somalia's parliament.

The United Nations had described the pursuit of one-person, one-vote elections as a "historic milestone" on Somalia's path to full democratization and peace after decades of war and violent instability in the Horn of Africa nation.