Somalia’s president, Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, said on April 28th local time that he had abandoned plans to extend his two-year term after tensions in the country’s capital, Mogadishu, following violent clashes, Reuters/AP reported.
Hours before he formally renounced the extension, he also expressed his displeasure with the proposal to extend it, calling for preparations for a new presidential election.
On the evening of April 13, local time, Somalia’s Minister of Information and State Orientation, Osman Abuka Al-Dolby, issued a statement on the signing of a law on the extension of the presidential term: “President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed signed a law tonight, which was unanimously adopted by Parliament on 12 April. ”
Somalia’s four-year term as president, Mohamed, expires in February and there is no successor. The new head of state was supposed to be elected from a new group of lawmakers, but the election was delayed after opponents accused the president of planting his supporters in the region and the National Electoral Commission.
