The Somali presidential election may be
held this week and the proposed constitutional amendment to extend the
one-month deadline is foregone after pressure from the international community,
officials from the Somali transitional government and a major opposition
faction who are now attending the on-going talks in Djibouti, said on Tuesday.
Diplomats from African and western countries at the power- sharing talks in
Djibouti has insisted that the Somali presidential election be held within the
timeframe set in the Somali Transitional Federal Charter, Mohamed Omar Dalha,
deputy speaker of Somali parliament told local Shabelle radio in Mogadishu by
phone from Djibouti, reported Xinhua.
The thirty-day deadline for the election of a president expires on Wednesday as
former president Abdulahi Yusuf Ahmed stepped down on Dec. 29,
The Somali Transitional Federal Government and the Alliance for the
Re-Liberation of Somalia(ARS) agreed last October on the outline of enlarging
Somalia's Transitional Federal Parliament and forming a Government of National
Unity.
On Monday, the Somali lawmakers approved the expansion of the parliament to
include members of the opposition faction, the ARS, who will be sworn in on
Tuesday.
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