Efforts of the Somali President and Prime Minister to form a government

 The deadline given by the Somali Parliament to form a government is approaching, with only 4 days left. This is the remaining 10-day deadline granted by Parliament to Somali Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Berri to form a federal government. Therefore, gaining confidence has become a concern for the government.

In order to pass the formation of the government, international and local efforts have begun to anticipate any gap that may be caused by the political parties by announcing the list of the federal cabinet in the country. On the local level, Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mahmoud is holding successive meetings with parliamentarians to give confidence to the upcoming cabinet formation.

So far, Sheikh Mahmoud has met members of Parliament who hail from the state of Galmudug. The deputies pledged to give confidence to the prospective cabinet, and it is scheduled to meet successively with the deputies in the form of regional blocs according to their affiliations with the federal states in search of securing confidence.

At the international level, the United Nations envoy to Somalia, James Swan, conducted a local tour to the capitals of the federal states. He met all state presidents, Galmudug, Puntland, Southwest and Jubbaland except for the president of Hirshabelle State.

He discussed with them the files of security, drought, development and political stability, pointing to the need to strengthen cooperation with the federal government and support the next new government. Informed sources said, “The most prominent names in the Council of Ministers will come outside the walls of Parliament, and this is an unusual custom, as previous governments used to come from within Parliament.”

Observers believe that the new trend in selecting members of the government makes it difficult for the expected line-up to gain the confidence of the deputies. Some deputies are trying to build alliances within parliament to pressure not to give confidence to the next government unless members of parliament dominate the majority of ministerial portfolios.