Somalia: Presidential Commission Delays Parliamentary Vote to November

By Staff, Agencies 

Voting for members of Somalia's lower house of parliament has been rescheduled for late November, a move that will delay the indirect election of a president.

Voting for lawmakers by elders had been due to be completed this week, with the election of a speaker and swearing in of members of parliament happening next week -- in time for them to pick a president on Oct. 10.

But an election implementation commission has drawn up a new timetable for the drawn-out process showing that lawmakers will be picked between Oct. 1 and Nov. 20.

The timetable did not give a date for when the lawmakers will elect a president.

The current government's term expired in February. A delay in holding the election, and a row over President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed's attempt to extend his rule, caused a political crisis and an armed standoff in the streets of the capital.

That impasse was resolved in May.