Some of Somalia’s newly elected members of parliament are set to be sworn in on Thursday in the capital, Mogadishu, following parliamentary elections that took months.
They will be sworn in at a venue inside the main airport area – one of the highly guarded areas in the capital – as security remains a key concern.
The 11th parliament comprises two main houses – the upper house with 54 members and the people’s house with 275.
Their main task will be to elect a president who will be expected to lead the Horn of Africa nation for the next four years.
The swearing-in also marks a crucial step for the election process, dogged by conflict and political infighting between key stakeholders, leading to the elections being postponed several times.
The current President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo, whose first term ended in February last year, continued to stay in power to avoid a political vacuum.
It took the intervention of Somalia’s partners for the process to be hastened. The US imposed visa restrictions on some key players accused of sabotaging the election process.
Somalia has had no stability for over 30 years since the former military leader Siad Barre was toppled in 1991, followed by a bloody civil war.
However, a lot has changed in the last two decades as the country embarks on recovery.