Somalia’s Lower House Parliament session was postponed on Saturday due to a lack of quorum, emphasizing the 11th Parliament’s attendance difficulties.
Parliamentary Speaker Sheikh Adan Mohamed Nur Madobe acknowledged that members routinely skipped sessions with impunity, but promised that absent lawmakers will be disciplined in the future.
“Today, I am issuing a final warning to legislators who have been absent from the session without cause,” he stated.
The first reading of the draft National Intelligence and Security Agency laws, which the Somali Cabinet approved at its weekly meeting on Thursday, was expected to be completed by lawmakers.
The Speaker requested that the list of absentee legislators be submitted by the Parliamentary Ethics Committee.
Speaker Madobe called off two more sessions in December when fewer than a hundred legislators showed up for the session to enact the 2023 budget, falling far short of the constitutional quorum.
Despite the absence of 138 MPs, the budget vote was eventually passed in late December.
To constitute a quorum for a meeting, two-thirds of the Somali parliament’s 184 MPs must be present.
MP absence also compelled the Speaker to cancel two sessions in early June when less than 70 parliamentarians – or roughly a fifth of the total MPS – were present.
Speaker Madobe condemned the absent legislators at the time as “lazy” MPs who would rather “sleep at home than accomplish their national responsibility,” yet taking no action against them.
According to observers, the lack of sanctions for politicians who fail to attend legislative sessions adds greatly to absenteeism. There is currently no mechanism in place to hold absentee legislators accountable for their absence. They are not forced to defend their absence, creating an atmosphere of impunity.
Somali politicians have a habit of missing parliamentary sessions and committee meetings. According to a HOL report from 2016, there are significant gaps in the country’s legislative process, with absenteeism in the 9th parliament ranging from 94% to 66% among the worst offenders. HOL has not yet collected data to examine the attendance record of Somalia’s 10th Parliament.
The high absenteeism rate among Somali legislators has slowed the passage of crucial legislation and hampered the parliament’s capacity to hold the government responsible.