1st round of House Speaker election concludes

The first round of voting by the Puntland Parliament concluded a few minutes earlier with two candidates qualified for the second round concluded.

MPs casted vote for the position of the speaker and Ahmed Ali Hashi managed to score 40 votes,  Abdihakim Mohamed Dabo-dahared 19 votes and Saeed Abdi Samatar got three thus Doobo-Dahared and Ahmed Ali qualified for the 2nd round.

This comes less than two weeks after speaker of the Parliament of Puntland Mr. Saciid Hassan Shire resigned a day after Puntland president opened the 36th session of the parliament in Garowe town.

The Speaker has taken this decision after 40 members of Puntland parliament brought motion of no confidence against him.

Said Hassan Shire has been in office since 13th January, 2014 and he became the first speaker to step down.

After announcing his resignation, Puntland lawmakers welcomed the decision of the former Parliament speaker.

They accused the ex-speaker of breaching the constitution and failing to execute his duties.

Puntland, a region in northeastern Somalia, declared itself to be semi-autonomous from Somalia in 1998 as fighting raged through most of the country. Since the region has been calm and had a functioning constitutional government with its own security forces.