Since 2000, Somalia has been under a political instability as each of four presidents ruled the country in the past twenty (20) years had dislodged three Prime Ministers through a vote of no confidence by the House of the People of Somalia Federal Parliament, but the incumbent president has ousted a single Prime Minster with a similar procedure.
Some constitutional law experts argue that the Somalia political system is neither a presidential system nor a parliamentary system and it is amorphous. According to article 89 of the Somalia Professional constitution stipulates “the two houses of Somalia Federal Parliament means House of The People and Upper House elects the president of Somalia in a joint session” and article 90 mentions the president appoints the Prime Minister of Somalia with the endorsement of the House of the People.
Prime Minister and executive arm undertake all tasks of the government including “formulating and the implementation of the overall policy of the government. In addition, any responsibility of government’s failure taken by the Prime Minister and his cabinet and held is accountable by parliament as codified in article 99 of the professional constitution.
In article 100, the Somalia Prime Minster is head of the government, and according to international practice, the head of government is a more powerful than the head of state in the Parliamentary system as a result of the Somalia parliament creates and elects the president and approves the Prime Minister, while an elected person is a more powerful than the nominated person in the international practice, the Somalia president elected by parliament and nominates the Prime Minster with endorsement with House of People of Somalia Federal Parliament, in the case of Somalia, the president is powerful. Again, Somalia’s political system is amorphous and ambiguous and is only intended to convince the sub-clans dominated the country since independence.
The infighting and political instability are being replicated among the Presidents and Prime Ministers since 2000 based on the atmosphere of the political system and without of single person who has a mandate governs the country and could be held accountable by parliament. Therefore, the Professional constitution makes both the President and Prime Minister are more powerful, for the reason the president can appoint the Prime Minister with the endorsement of the House of the People but his dismissal requires the vote of no confidence of the House of the People of Somalia, and the president of Somalia elected by two House of the People and his impeachment needs to be presented by one third 1/3 members of the House of the People of Somalia Federal Parliament and determination and confirmation of constitutional court.
Finally, political instability induces the dysfunctional institutions during infighting between President and Prime Minister. Furthermore, political instability leads to the collapse of the state and society (Acemoglu, D., & James A. Robinson, 2012).
The political instability impedes the development, economic growth through physical and human capital, and also negatively affecting macroeconomic performance, human capital due to migration (IMF, 2011). In Somalia, the political instability undermines the public service delivery, public civil servants and armed forces payment and also jeopardizes political goods such as security and justice and paralyzes the state to move from a fragile state to an effective government.
Recommendations:
• To embrace the presidential system, it more suitable for Somalia people and should create more of political stability as the president is head of state, the nation’s official ceremonial head, spokesman for the state, and head of government who formulate and implement the nation’s public policy in addition, he directly elected by people, an example in the United States of America;
• To implement a parliamentary system, because the majority representation party or coalition parties leader in the parliament becoming the Prime Minister as the official head of government and the president in this system become ceremonial. And this system causes some of the political instability in developing country and third world, but the countries have a mature democracy is suitable for them such as Japan, Italia, and the United Kingdom;
• To apply a semi-presidential system or mixed presidential-parliamentary system and this system is very complex, the president elected by people alongside the Prime Minister comes from the greatest representation of the party. However, if the president nominates the Prime Minister and dismiss him/her could create relatively political stability; and
• finally, the author recommends the presidential system.
Ahmed Mohamoud Mohamed is an independent researcher and political analyst. He can be reached at Email: siyasi114@gmail, Twitter at @ahmedsiyasi.
