Nairobi – August 21st, 2012; The Special Representative of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission for Somalia, Ambassador Boubacar Diarra has congratulated the people of Somalia on the inauguration of a new parliament, the first to be sworn in on Somali soil in over twenty years.

Ambassador Diarra applauded the steps taken so far to end the transition to representative government. “This is a historic moment. Today Somalia has a new beginning with a new political framework based on a popular and legitimate provisional constitution,” he said.

215 out of a total of 275 MPs were sworn in last evening in Mogadishu, substantially more than the 185 required for the new Somali Federal Parliament to convene with a functioning majority.  Mr. Mussa Hassan Abdulle, a former army general was appointed interim Speaker. The inauguration comes just three weeks after a National Constituent Assembly overwhelmingly adopted a provisional constitution for the country, which replaced the 8 year old Transitional Federal Charter.  Read the full story

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