Draft charter should be scrapped, says independent survey

An independent assessment of the draft Somali charter, which is supposed to act as a blueprint for the transitional period, has dismissed the document as a "mongrel" and recommended discarding it completely.

The critique - commissioned by the Dutch NGO, NOVIB, which supports civil society participation in Somalia's peace process - says the document is "such a flawed piece of draftmanship", that it does not deserve to be called a charter.

"The mere act of discussing this draft, let alone considering its adoption, would be a bitter insult to those involved and would amount to washing down the drain, the months of gruelling work that have gone into the negotiations for the rebirth of the Somali republic," the report said.

It noted the "contradictory" nature of the document, highlighting for example that "in one breath, it professes secularism, and proceeds right in the next to enact Islamic sentiments".

The critique describes the transitional framework contained in the document as "hazy" and says the "grammatical goofs throughout the text of the draft are shocking, if not an outright shame".

"[It has] a motley of constitutional arrangements but ends up not having any distinct system at all," the report added. "A classic case of a mongrel with both amphibian and mammal habits."

It also said there were "dangerous silences, gaps and incomplete provisions" in the draft which, unless addressed, would "definitely constitute the next phase of the peace conference".

"The most outrageous omission in the draft is the absence of a clear and comprehensive electoral framework," it noted.

At the same time, the critique said the draft focused too much on side issues, such as the institutions of governance, which should be addressed by a transitional government.

Furthermore there was a "colossal mix-up" in the role of the council of ministers, the president and the transitional parliament.

"The best way out of this constitutional rut is to discard the draft in its entirety and convene a panel of experts ... to come up with a draft worth presenting to the delegates for discussion," the report said. "Another strategy could be to have several discussion drafts, leading to their merger after broad deliberations."