Somali parliament approves constitution change to extend president’s term, delay election

MOGADISHU, March 5 (Reuters) – Somalia’s parliament voted to change its constitution and extend the term in office for lawmakers and the president, the president and the parliament’s speaker said, pushing back planned elections by a year.

Somalia has endured conflict and clan battles with no strong central government since the fall of autocratic ruler Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.

While an African Union peacekeeping mission has pushed back the al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab group, it still controls vast areas of the countryside and has the ability to conduct regular strikes on major population centres.

President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud had reached a deal last August with some opposition leaders stipulating that, while lawmakers would be directly elected in 2026, the president would still be chosen by parliament. A 2024 law restored universal suffrage ahead of the vote.

On Wednesday, 222 lawmakers from the parliament and senate out of a total of 329 voted by acclamation to change the law, extending their term and that of the president to five years, from four years previously.

“Today is a historic day for it is the official completion of the constitution which had dragged for a long period,” the president told a press conference on Wednesday.

Opposition party leaders, including former presidents and former prime ministers, rejected the amendment and called for elections in May as planned.

(Reporting by Abdi Sheikh; Writing by George Obulutsa)