Somalia’s Parliament Ratifies New Constitution After Years of Deadlock

(MENAFN) Somalia's parliament delivered a historic verdict Wednesday, overwhelmingly passing a long-contested new constitution that reshapes the nation's governance framework and lays the groundwork for a more defined democratic future.

In a session broadcast live on Somali National Television, 222 legislators cast votes in favor of the landmark document — 185 drawn from the House of the People and 37 from the Senate — bringing years of fractious constitutional debate to a decisive close.

The newly ratified charter fundamentally restructures how Somalia selects its leadership. Parliament will retain the authority to elect the president, while citizens will directly choose their parliamentary representatives. The president will appoint the prime minister, though parliament holds the power to remove them.

Presidential tenure will be capped at two terms under the new framework. Candidates must hold Somali citizenship by birth, and anyone born to a foreign-national mother is disqualified from seeking the office. The constitution further mandates that the president, prime minister, parliamentary speaker, and chief justice relinquish any foreign citizenship upon assuming office — and prohibits each from being married to a foreign national.

Exclusive authority over foreign policy is consolidated within the federal government. Individual states are explicitly barred from independently negotiating or concluding bilateral agreements with foreign nations — a provision directly targeting longstanding disputes between Mogadishu and semi-autonomous regional administrations.

The document sets the age of religious maturity at 15 and legal responsibility at 18, while stretching the government's term in office from four years to five. It supersedes Somalia's provisional 2012 constitution, which, though foundational to post-civil war reconstruction, left numerous critical provisions unresolved and open to future revision.

Tensions between the federal government and regional states over power distribution, electoral structures, the system of governance, and the status of Mogadishu repeatedly complicated the review process. The new constitution is intended to replace provisional ambiguity with binding legal clarity — particularly around elections and senior public appointments.

The document is expected to carry legal force once signed by the president.

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