Renegade Speaker revoked of duty

Here's another case of sour grapes by a Somali politician who played his cards wrong and sided with the losing side. He was probably positioning himself to be President if the TNG fell to the Islamists, and now he's stuck overseas and having his staff complain about parlimentary procedures.

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BAIDOA, Somalia Jan 17 (Garowe Online) - Somali legislators debated and voted on a motion brought up against the interim parliament Speaker, Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan, who has been a vocal critic of Ethiopian military intervention.

The parliament meet occurred Wednesday in Baidoa, an inland city that still houses the parliament despite the government’s takeover of the Somali capital Mogadishu last month with Ethiopian backing.

MP Omar Qalad read a document highlighting the many charges brought up against Speaker Sharif Hassan, which included treason, being absent from the country for more than 3 months without valid reason, interfering with legislators’ salaries, and supporting the outsted Islamic Courts movement.

A long debate ensured, with lawmakers disagreeing on the method of voting. Some MPs wanted the vote to be by secret ballot while others argued to vote publicly by show of hands.

Of the 192 MPs present at the Baidoa session, 183 raised their hands in favor of removing Sharif Hassan from the post of interim parliament Speaker and 9 MPs voted no.

Osman Elmi Boqorre, the second deputy Speaker, announced the official results at the end of the session. Sharif Hassan met with European Union officials earlier in the week and sources said he is still visiting European countries.

MP Mohamed Abdi Yusuf, a member of Sharif’s delegation in Europe, condemned the vote to remove him from the post of Speaker while he was still absent.

-Garowe Online