Regarding Somalia's president and parliament each extending their terms of office by one year before the end of their terms, the Supreme Court ruled on the 5th (local time) that the term extension was illegal.
President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has not yet revealed his position on the ruling, but the political chaos in Somalia is deepening ahead of the next presidential election, as he dismissed the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and announced his successor the day before the ruling was announced.
According to AFP news agency and Garowe Online, a media outlet based in Puntland, a semi-autonomous state in Somalia, the Constitutional Chamber of Somalia's Supreme Court, comprised of five justices, ruled on this day that it was illegal for President Mohamud and the National Assembly to each extend their terms of office by one year after amending the constitution in March.
The Supreme Court stated that the term of office of President Mohamud and members of the National Assembly has already ended and ordered officials to agree on an election plan within 30 days and hold elections within 90 days.
Originally, President Mohamud was scheduled to end his term in May, and the National Assembly was scheduled to end his term in April, a month earlier.
However, last March, Congress passed a constitutional amendment extending the term of office of the president and lawmakers from four years to five years.
Subsequently, the government applied the revised constitution to the incumbent president and members of the National Assembly, promoting a 'transitional period' to prepare for the next election, extending the term of office by one year.
In response, the opposition party filed a lawsuit claiming that it was unconstitutional and illegal, and the Supreme Court ruled on this day that the term extension provisions of the revised Constitution do not apply to the president and lawmakers who were in office at the time of the revision.
The Supreme Court did not judge at this time the unconstitutionality or illegality of extending the presidential term to five years.
However, based on the fact that the revised Constitution does not explicitly state that the changed term of office provisions apply to the incumbent president and members of the National Assembly, it was judged that the extended term cannot be considered to automatically apply to the current president and members of the National Assembly, and that it is reasonable to assume that the terms of office ended in May and April, respectively, according to the provisions of the existing Constitution.
President Mohamud has not yet expressed his position on this ruling.
However, ahead of the ruling, the court announced the day before that it would dismiss Chief Justice Bashe Yusuf Ahmed and appoint a successor, citing "concerns about the need for efficient and fair operation of the judiciary."
In response, the Supreme Court issued a statement refusing to dismiss the Chief Justice, criticizing the measure as "intended to interfere with the judicial process of constitutional cases filed before the Supreme Court."
Somalia has not been able to hold national elections for decades due to civil war, tribal conflict, and the insurgency of Al-Shabab, an Islamist militant group linked to Al-Qaeda.
Currently, the parliament is made up of members elected by tribal leaders who share power, and the president is elected by the parliament.
The revised Constitution stipulated that the 275 members of the House of Representatives be elected by the people through a one-person-one-vote system and an open party list proportional representation system, and that the president be elected by the Federal Assembly, which is composed of members of the House of Representatives and 54 senators representing each federal state.
Somalia's National Election Commission (NIEBC) announced last month that in accordance with the revised constitution, parliamentary elections will be held on April 15 next year and presidential elections on May 15.
