Heritage Institute for Policy Studies - Policy Brief 04 I 2016 - Parliament should Use Its Oversight to Improve Electoral Model

Upper House Key sections of the April 12, 2016 agreement between the president, the speaker of parliament, the prime minister and his deputy and the leaders of the federal member/interim states fall short of the leaders’ previously stated commitment 4 to an inclusive, legitimate and democratic process. [...] The proposed plan confers on the executives or the regional presidents the power to nominate two candidates for each seat in the upper house (senate). [...] Instead of making the upper house a pet project of the regional bosses, it should represent all the citizens of the states. [...] More ominously, tasking the management of the selection/election of the 275-member lower house with appointees by the regional leaders could result in the manipulation of the process, if not an outright rigging of the election. [...] Moreover, the NLF has arbitrarily deprived the 1.7 million residents of the national capital, Mogadishu, the right to be represented in the senate.