SOMALIA: Parliament endorses new prime minister

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

NAIROBI, 23 Dec 2004 (IRIN) - The Somali transitional parliament approved on Thursday the appointment of Ali Muhammad Gedi as the country's prime minister, 12 days after the assembly rejected his nomination on the grounds that his initial selection was unconstitutional.

"Parliament is now satisfied that the president has complied with article 49 [of Somalia's interim charter]," Abdulrahman Aden Ibbi, a member of parliament, told IRIN.

Under article 49, the president is obligated to submit his prime minister-designate to parliament for approval. The nominee is also required to present himself before parliament to explain his programmes and how he intends to implement them.

Gedi will now have to reconstitute his cabinet, which had also been rejected by the parliament, and present the names of those selected to the transitional assembly for approval.

Ibbi said that President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed had admitted that he erred when he failed to seek parliamentary approval of his choice for the post of prime minister and promised to uphold the rule of law in the future.

Gedi also pledged to abide by the principle of proportional representation of Somali clans in his cabinet.

Gedi, a 51-year-old former professor of veterinary science, was initially appointed on 3 November. Commentators then said he was a good choice, mainly because he had not been tainted by the factional bloodshed that ruined Somalia following the toppling of the regime of Muhammad Siyad Barre in 1991.

He is a member of the Abgal sub-clan, of the Hawiye clan, and was a prominent member of the political arm of the United Somali Congress, one of the armed groups that overthrew Barre.

Members of the transitional federal parliament elected Yusuf president on 10 October. His election marked the culmination of a two-year reconciliation conference sponsored by the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development that brought representatives together from various clans and factions.

The new government has not been able to move from Nairobi to Mogadishu because of security considerations.

[ENDS]