Saturday January 7, 2023
Mogadishu (HOL) - Somalia's Lower House Parliament session was postponed on Saturday due to a lack of quorum, highlighting the attendance problem plaguing the 11th Parliament.
Parliamentary Speaker Sheikh Adan Mohamed Nur Madobe conceded that parliamentarians skipped sessions frequently with impunity but promised that in the future, absent lawmakers would be penalized.
"Today, I am sending the last warning to the parliamentarians who have not been attending the session without justifications," he said.
Lawmakers were supposed to complete the first reading of the draft National Intelligence and Security Agency bills which the Somali Cabinet passed at its weekly meeting on Thursday.
The Speaker asked Parliamentary Ethics Committee to submit the list of absentee parliamentarians.
Speaker Madobe cancelled two other sessions in December after less than a hundred lawmakers attended the session to pass the 2023 budget, falling well short of the constitutional quorum.
The budget vote was eventually passed in late December, despite
138 MPs skipping the session.
Somali parliament requires two-thirds of its MPs - 184 - must be present to constitute the quorum for a meeting.
MP absenteeism also forced the Speaker to cancel two sessions in early June when
fewer than 70 lawmakers - or about a quarter of the total MPS - were present at the sessions.
At the time, Speaker Madobe criticized the absent lawmakers as
"lazy" MPs who would rather "sleep at home than fulfill their national duty, despite taking no action against the lawmakers.
Observers have noted the lack of consequences for lawmakers who fail to attend parliamentary sessions significantly contributes to absenteeism. Currently, there is no mechanism to hold absentee lawmakers accountable for their absence. They are not required to justify their absence, which has led to a culture of impunity.
Somali lawmakers have a history of frequently failing to attend parliamentary sessions and committee meetings. A
HOL report in 2016 found gaping holes in the country's legislative process, with absenteeism in the 9th parliament ranging from 94% - 66% among the worst offenders. HOL has not yet obtained data to analyze Somalia's 10th Parliament's attendance record.
The high absentee rate among Somali lawmakers has led to delays in the passage of critical legislation and hindered the parliament's ability to hold the government accountable.