Somali Senate re-elects Abdi Hashi Abdullahi as speaker

By Tufan Aktas

ISTANBUL (AA) – Abdi Hashi Abdullahi on Tuesday was re-elected as the speaker of Somalia’s Senate, the upper house of the bi-cameral legislature, local media reported.

According to Somali state television SNTV, Abdullahi received 28 votes in the 54-member Senate, while his closest rival Salah Ahmad Jama received the backing of 24 members in a vote held in the capital Mogadishu.

Despite the ongoing issues in the country, the elections process, which had been postponed for the last two years, resumed on July 29 last year.

The election process for the House of the People, the lower chamber, began on Nov. 1, 2021, and ended on March 31 after several postponements.

Deputies elected to the lower and upper houses of the parliament have begun to be sworn in in Mogadishu.

The presidential elections, which have been postponed since the beginning of last year and caused a political crisis in Somalia, will be held after the parliamentary elections end.