Prime minister survives no-confidence vote

Somalia's Prime Minister Ali Muhammad Gedi survived a no-confidence vote on Sunday.

"The prime minister is grateful for the vote and has congratulated those who voted for him and those against," Abdirahman Dinari, the spokesman of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG), said on Monday. He added that the lawmakers had shown "democratic maturity in the manner that they voted".

Eighty-eight of 217 Members of Parliament (MPs) present, out of the 275-strong chamber, voted to keep the prime minister, while 126 voted to remove him after debate on the motion. Three votes were spoiled. But the ‘no’ vote needed 139 MPs to succeed.

The MPs were to have voted on the motion on Saturday but this was delayed by a day because of the killing of Abdalla Deerow Isaq, the Constitutional Affairs Minister, on Friday. Dinari said 10 people had been arrested in connection with the killing but "investigations are still on, we cannot speculate until we have all the facts".

Suleeyman Olad Roble, one of the MPs who tabled the motion, said: "We are disappointed but we will try again." He said Gedi had survived because "at least 20 MPs from our side did not make it to Baidao [the temporary base of the TFG] in time".

According to Somalia's interim charter (constitution), the lawmakers could bring another motion in six months. Some of the MPs had accused Gedi of not promoting reconciliation and failing to put in place functioning government institutions.

On Friday, 18 ministers and deputies resigned from the government, accusing Gedi of blocking the path to reconciliation by refusing to talk to the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), which controls the capital, Mogadishu, and much of the south.

Dinari said Gedi would speed up national reconciliation, adding that "the government was going to send a delegation to Khartoum", the Sudanese capital, where talks between the TFG and the UIC are expected. He said Gedi would also continue to fill the vacancies caused by the resignations.

Meanwhile, the Kenyan government has called for "an extraordinary meeting" of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) "to discuss the security and political situation in Somalia", Kenya's Ambassador to Somalia, Muhammad Abdi Afey, told IRIN on Monday.

Afey said that all IGAD foreign ministers were expected to attend Tuesday's meeting in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital.

ah/mw/eo