By Xinhua,
Mogadishu (Somalia) : The Transitional Somali government and a main opposition faction, the Alliance for the Reliberation of Somalia (ARS), have finalized a power-sharing deal during talks in Djibouti, according to reports reaching here Wednesday.
The new accord brightens up prospect of a stable set up that would be able to restore law and order to the country after two decades of ruinous civil war and would deal effectively with the pirates who have unleashed a reign of terror in the Gulf of Aden, the world’s busiest maritime trade route.
The two sides have agreed to double the membership of the existing 275-member Somali national parliament, Abdurrahman Abdishakur Warsame, head of the opposition delegation told local reporters over the phone from Djibouti city, the capital of another Horn of Africa state of the same name.
Sources close to the talks say that 200 of the new members will come from the ARS while the remaining 75 will be selected from the members of the Somali civil society, the Diaspora, and Somali politicians not attached to either of the two sides.
The latest deal is part of a series of pacts signed between Somali government and the opposition ARS, led by the moderate Islamist leader, Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed.
According to the agreement, to be signed later Wednesday, the new parliament will elect a speaker and a president who will in turn nominate a new prime minster, Warsame said.
An international Justice and Reconciliation Committee, to investigate the war crime committed during the two-decade long civil war, will also be formed.
The process is expected to be finalized within a month from the signing of the deal in Djibouti.