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Joint House seating to select Presidential Election Committee today

Storyline:National News
A lawmaker casts her vote during the election of Lower House Speaker January 11, 2016. A joint parliamentary committee will be formed Tuesday to oversee Presidential election. Photo: Amisom
A lawmaker casts her vote during the election of Lower House Speaker January 11, 2016. A joint parliamentary committee will be formed Tuesday to oversee Presidential election. Photo: Amisom

A joint session of the Federal Parliament will today elect a Presidential election committee as the country closes in on electing a new president about five months after the incumbent Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s term lapsed.

The Lower House which currently has 273 members out of 275 is allocated ten seats to the committee while the Senate which is one member short of the constitutionally mandated 54 will send five members to the committee according to a memo released last week by Parliament.

Somaliland is yet to elect two members for the Lower House and one for the Senate.

Senate Speaker Abdi Hashi Abdullahi has told Goobjoog News both houses will meet today in Mogadishu to elect the committee which will be responsible for organizing and coordinating the Presidential election process whose date is yet to be announced.

“I can confirm to you the Lower and Upper House members will meet today to choose the presidential election committee. We met yesterday (Monday) with our Lower House counterparts to plan for today’s meeting,” said Abdullahi.

The Speaker did not however comment on whether they agreed to any amends regarding the committee numbers but noted, ‘you’ll know today.”

The committee will be composed of two divisions; one in charge of logistics and finances while the other will deal with the registration of candidates. Each presidential candidate will be required to deposit $30,000 fee to be enrolled for the race. About 20 candidates will be contesting for the contest in attempts to unseat President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud who will also be defending his seat.

President Mohamud’s term expired September 10 last year but the electoral process suffered several false starts forcing the Federal electoral body FIEIT and the National Leadership Forum to put off the election four times. The National Leadership Forum is composed of the President, PM, House Speaker and heads of regional administrations.

The International Community urged Parliament Sunday to expedite the process of electing a new president noting the country was facing numerous challenges which called for national attention

“International partners call for the swift formation of the Joint Ad Hoc Committee on the election of the Federal President to facilitate the holding of a presidential vote by both houses of parliament as soon as possible,” the IC said in a joint statement.

All funds from Presidential candidates and candidates for Speaker and Deputies will be deposited in the Parliamentary account, a memo from Parliament last week read. Candidates for Speaker of both Houses paid $15,000 while their deputies parted with $10,000.