Somalia parliamentary vote is pushed back to November

September 6, 2021

MOGADISHU (Reuters) – Voting for members of Somalia’s lower house of parliament has been rescheduled for late November, a move that will delay the indirect election of a president.

Voting for lawmakers by elders had been due to be completed this week, with the election of a speaker and swearing in of members of parliament happening next week — in time for them to pick a president on Oct. 10.

But an election implementation commission has drawn up a new timetable for the drawn-out process showing that lawmakers will be picked between Oct. 1 and Nov. 20.

The timetable, seen by Reuters, did not give a date for when the lawmakers will elect a president.

The current government’s term expired in February. A delay in holding the election, and a row over President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed’s attempt to extend his rule, caused a political crisis and an armed standoff in the streets of the capital.

That impasse was resolved in May.

(Reporting by Abdi Sheikh, Writing by Duncan Miriri, Editing by Timothy Heritage and Maggie Fick)

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