Somalia now in severest full-blown constitutional crisis in decades.
A timeline:
💠11 October: Opposition leader Sheikh Sharif lodges petition with Supreme Court challenging incumbent President’s unilateral constitutional changes, electoral model and term extension.
💠4 November: President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud (HSM) dismisses Supreme Court Chief Justice Bashe Yusuf Ahmed via Facebook announcement, appoints ally and ruling party JSP member to pre-empt adverse ruling on the opposition petition by the Supreme Court – a gross violation of the rules which give Bashe security of tenure, protects him from outright dismissal by the chief executive.
💠5 November: A five-member Supreme Court panel of judges (minus Bashe) goes ahead and rules that HSM is in office unlawfully, that his term ended in May 2026, that the Parliament’s own mandate ended in April 2026, and further directed that all political parties engage to agree a new electoral framework, before organising fresh elections in 90 days.
The verdict effectively nullifies HSM’s unilateral term extension, invalidates both his electoral model (the so-called OPOV) and the April-May 2027 poll timetable.
Opposition alliance SFC members welcome ruling.
💠5 November: A defiant HSM vows to press ahead with his electoral scheme. Ruling party and regime hardliners pick the cue and allege Bashe conspiring with ‘foreign enemies’ to subvert the state and democratic aspiration of the Somali people.
💠5 November: Security forces reportedly storm Supreme Court; judges who made the ruling manage to escape dragnet, go underground; all airport police and airlines instructed to stop the lawmen from leaving the country…
Rashid Abdi
