Somalia: No confidence vote in PM fails after placards rattle Parliament

MOGADISHU, Somalia Nov 15, 2014 (Garowe Online)-Federal Government of Somalia’s parliament speaker Mohamed Sheikh Osman Jawari walked out of the house after lawmakers disrupted parliamentary session with national anthem and placards in favor of the Prime Minister on Saturday, Garowe Online reports.

Federal Member of Parliament said by telephone from Mogadishu, over hundred lawmakers stood up and collectively sang the national anthem shortly after the speaker and his two deputies began to step in for the distribution of no confidence vote in Prime Minister Abdiweli Sheikh Ahmed Mohamed.

“Anti no confidence motion MPs started chanting the national anthem when the parliament speaker and deputies entered the hall,” he said on condition of anonymity, adding that the atmosphere subsequently turned rowdy.

GO correspondent says, placards that read: “person or nation, save the nation, and Somalia is independent,” also rattled the parliamentary session.

No date has been specified for the next session as parliament speaker Mohamed Sheikh Osman Jawari furiously left for his residence in the heavily fortified compound of Villa Somalia.

Late on Friday night, efforts aimed at defusing the tensions between Somalia’s embattled President and Prime Minister Mohamed backfired.

UN envoy Nicholas Kay, EU’s Michele Cervone d’Urso and Aleander Rondos, British Neil Wigan and US special representative James P. McAnulty have expressed deep concern over the infighting, with Washington reportedly threatening funding cuts.

MPs loyal to the Prime Minister criticized President Mohamud for wooing parliamentarians with cash bribes.

Political analysts tell Garowe Online that Mohamud’s opponent and the current Prime Minister is indelible unlike his predecessor Abdi Farah Shirdon who was voted out of office in late 2013.

GAROWE ONLINE