• + Comment now
• Print
• Email
• Tweet
• Reset

The National Constituent Assembly (NCA) conference has been postponed to Monday (July 23rd), Somali Minister of Constitution and Reconciliation Abdirahman Hosh Jibril announced Saturday.

This is the fourth time the NCA conference has been postponed.

Tribal leaders failed to select the delegates to the assembly before May 15th, and failed again to meet the June 20th deadline to form the assembly. The conference was re-scheduled to begin on July 12th, but was postponed until July 21st because tribal leaders failed to meet the deadline for selecting members of the assembly.

This time, the conference was postponed for technical reasons, Jibril said.

Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali met with technical committees for resolving disputes between tribal chiefs on Saturday, urging elders to resolve outstanding differences and to speed up the selection of delegates to approve the new draft constitution.

Abdullahi Osman, head of the technical committee for the selection of NCA delegates, said the selection of delegates is almost complete.

"We are three days behind the schedule, we drew up last week," Osman told Sabahi. "This was for technical reasons due to lack of quorum. However, we are very optimistic that the constitutional conference will kick off on Monday."

Osman said there will not be another delay in approving the draft constitution, which is scheduled to be ratified by July 25th.

Although they have not completed selecting the NCA, the tribal leaders did complete a review of the new constitution last week.

"After days of open debates and discussions, tribal leaders approved the new draft constitution, and made recommendations that would be presented to the NCA," Jibril said. "This is an historical step that will pave the way for the Roadmap, which aims to end the transitional period at its scheduled date, August 20th."

The 825-member NCA is the only entity that will vote on the proposed draft constitution until a popular referendum can be conducted. The tribal elders are also tasked with choosing members of the new parliament, which will then select the president on August 20th, when the tenure of the Transitional Federal Government comes to an end.