Abdi Hashi Abdullahi, the speaker of Somalia’s Senate, was re-elected in a vote held in the country’s capital, Mogadishu, on Tuesday.
Many saw the re-election as a test of the seasoned politician’s ability to keep control of Parliament’s Upper House.
Abdi Hashi Abdullahi was re-elected by the 54-seat upper house in a vote in which Abdullahi received 28 votes, Salah Jama received 24 votes, and Osman Dubbe received only two votes.
With Abdullahi’s appointment, the country is on the verge of holding general elections to elect a president to rule the country for the next five years.
This would happen when the 275-member lower house of parliament, which wields more power and influence in Somalia, votes to elect a speaker.
According to reports, the lower house will hold elections for their speaker and two deputies tomorrow. The country has missed many election deadlines, leading in US penalties against lawmakers.
Recall, last week, News Central reported that after a long-delayed and turbulent election process marked by a power tussle between the president and his prime minister, Somalia‘s newly elected MPs were sworn in.
In a ceremony held inside the heavily secured airport zone in Mogadishu’s capital, about 300 MPs took the oath of office.
Abdi Hashi is a Somali politician, former minister of fisheries and marine resources in the Federal Government of Somalia. He is the son of co-founder and the former president of Puntland Mohamed Abdi Hashi.
Hashi is an economist by profession, and a financial expert with nearly thirty years of experience working in Wall Street and the World Bank. Dr. Abdirahman was a candidate for the president of Somalia in 2012. He has two master’s degrees from Johns Hopkins University and attended George Mason University and received his PhD in economics.