Hiiraan Online
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Interim Chairman of both the new Parliament and Parliamentary Election Committee has officially announced that Prof Mohamed Sh. Osman Jawari is the elected Speaker of the new Federal Parliament of Somalia following the withdrawal of Prof Ali Khalif Galleyr from the participation of the final voting.
The Chairman said that in the first round of the three planned rounds, Prof Mohamed Sh Osman Jawari got 119 votes short of 20 votes for outright victory. The other four candidates were Dr. Ali Khalif Galleyr who got 77 votes, Mr. Abdi Hashi Abdullahi got 23 votes, Mr. Abdirashid Mohamed Hiddig got 10 votes and finally Mr. Hassan Abshir Farah got 5 votes.
The last three candidates announced their withdrawal from the participation of the second round of voting, then Prof Mohamed Sh Osman Jawari and Prof Ali Khalif Galleyr remained the last two candidates for the 3rd round voting. But Dr. Ali Khalif Galleyr, after consultation with his supporters, decided to concede the victory of his contender so Prof Mohamed Sh Osman Jawari became the new Speaker of the Federal Parliament of Somalia.
The Parliamentary Election Committee said that 236 MPs casted their votes. Only two votes were spoiled and rest counted and allocated to the candidates. The election took place in Mogadishu in Somali Police Training Academy tightly secured by large number of Somali Security and AMISOM forces.
Today will be the first time in the last 21 years that Somalia has a permanent Parliament, the legislative branch of Somali Government. The election of two deputy Speakers has started immediately and to be completed before tomorrow.
In addition, 23 new members of parliament were sworn –in while the election of the Speaker was in progress. 13 MPs of the 23 MPs were those rejected by the Technical Selection Committee but their parliamentary membership was reinstated by decision of the Supreme Court.