Wednesday April 14, 2021
Somalia's President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed has signed a controversial law extending his mandate for another two years, despite threats of sanctions from the international community.
State broadcaster Radio Mogadishu said the
president, better known by his nickname Farmajo, had "signed into law
the special resolution guiding the elections of the country after it was
unanimously passed by parliament".
Somalia's lower house of parliament on Monday
voted to extend the president's mandate after months of deadlock over
the holding of elections in the fragile nation.
However the speaker of the Senate slammed the
move as unconstitutional, and the resolution was not put before the
upper house, which would normally be required, before being signed into
law.
Farmajo and the leaders of Somalia's five
semi-autonomous federal states had reached an agreement in September
that paved the way for indirect parliamentary and presidential elections
in late 2020 and early 2021.
But it fell apart as squabbles erupted over how
to conduct the vote, and multiple rounds of talks have failed to break
the impasse.