The Roots of the Political Crisis in Somalia

                      Somali President Hassan (right) and Prime Minister Abdiweli




The current political crises in Somalia between President Hassan Sheikh Mahmoud and His Prime Minister Abdiweli Sheikh is not new and stable government still remains the biggest challenge of the east African country which became example of failed state to other countries.

Without clear definition of the roles of each government institutions has led Somalia to have almost 11 prime ministers and 4 presidents within just 14 years! 

Whenever conflict arises between the president and prime minster, the solution from the parliament is just to sack the prime minister by passing a “no confidence motion” which clearly instead of solving the crises is just fueling it because whenever a prime minister left the office, the president will appoint another one of his choice; who possibly will go through the same consequences. Moreover, such approach towards solving political crises and ignoring to address the real challenge is only wasting time and weakness the government institutions by corrupted means. For instance, when the president wants to sack the prime minister he must get the support of the members of the national assembly by purchasing each members vote so they can pass no confidence motion against the current government. This is contrary to the principles of the democracy and the vision of having democratic elections in 2016, which I believe it’s impossible and there are other obstacles the country is facing in order to achieve such objective within short period.

It is understandable that the constitution which was introduced during the Arta peace process and some modification has been made during the transitional period; which brought the current government into the power is the foundation of the political crises, because it is not clearly defines the authority and the tasks of each government branches.  Furthermore, those who at that time their task was to modify the constitution believed that giving a huge power to the president will likely cause problems and they removed the article in the old constitutions which gave the president a power to sack the prime minster if he realized it as a political solution.

On the other hand, the other critical problem of Somali political system is that a president elected by parliament and the parliament itself is not from the public, in addition to this is a prime minister which is not elected both the parliament and people but they have to back him and give a support. So the governance system is complicated, and this political crisis will continue unless Somalis fix the corrupted system we are having, because the constitution is not clearly defines the role of each institution.

A golden opportunity was missed during the draft of the constitution in 2012. It should be addressed and defined clearly the task of each department whether it is the executive, legislature and judiciary.  

Way forward:

In order to solve these consistent political crises between the president and the prime minster, there are suggestions of strictly following one government system whether it’s presidential system or full parliamentarian system. Each of these has its advantages and drawbacks. The option of presidential system will produce somehow of executive stability, in contrary, it might produce dictatorship.

The parliamentarian system will enhance accountability and is inclusive if all society has representatives in the house. This requires a long time and a proper selection of the representatives.