Names submitted for proposed MPs but divisions linger

Most Somali clans had on Thursday submitted to mediators the names of 205 people who would take up seats in the proposed 275-member transitional parliament, but some were still divided on how to share their quota of representatives to the assembly, sources close to the ongoing reconciliation conference said.

"Some sub-clans are having great difficulty dividing the allocated seats," one of the sources, who asked not to be named told IRIN. "The Harti sub-clan of the Darod is one of those that has not produced the list of their MPs. I'm sure it will take more than a few days for them to come to an agreement over the sharing of seats," he added.

Also unable to come up with their list of MPs were the Dir from southern Somalia.

Ministers from members states of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), who are mediating the talks in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, are due to meet on Saturday and Sunday, by which time they hope all members of the transitional parliament would have been nominated.

The inauguration of the transitional parliament has been postponed several times because of clan disagreements over how to share the seats. The process of allocating seats and naming the MPs has been particularly contentious for two clans - the Darod and the Dir.

Each of Somalia's four major clans was allocated 61 seats in the proposed 275-member parliament, while an alliance of minority clans would have 31 MPs. A speaker and two deputy speakers to be elected from among the parliamentarians will preside over the election of the president, who will in turn appoint a prime minister mandated to form a government.

Sources said the mediators were reluctant to launch the interim parliament before all clans had agreed on who their representatives should be, for fear of creating further wrangles that could undermine the credibility of the government that might emerge from the national reconciliation conference.

Somalia has been without an effective government since 1991 when the regime of Muhammad Siyad Barre was toppled, following which the country plunged into anarchy and factional violence.

IGAD groups Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Sudan and Uganda. Somalia is also a member, but is not fully represented because it lacks a functioning government.

The IGAD-sponsored Somali National Reconciliation Conference began in October 2002 in the western Kenyan town of Eldoret, and was moved to Nairobi in February 2003.