Somalia to elect new government by 2012

Mogadishu, Somalia: Somali President Shaikh Sharif Shaikh Ahmad said an agreement reached on Tuesday to prepare for elections next year would help the country overcome challenges including famine and an insurgency.

"I am very confident if we show unity we can overcome these challenges and because of the agreements reached today I am optimistic for the future," Shaikh Sharif said at a celebratory dinner in Mogadishu, the capital.

Somali politicians including lawmakers, the heads of the autonomous states of Puntland and Galmudug and the pro-government Ahlu Sunna Wal Jamaa militia agreed to a so-called road map that will end a transitional administration formed in 2004.

The Western-backed government, headed by Shaikh Sharif, has failed to end a two-decade-long civil war in the Horn of Africa country.

The agreement marks a ‘monumental step' forward in bringing peace to Somalia, Wafula Wamunyinyi, deputy special representative to the African Union Commission for Somalia, said in an e-mailed statement. The signatories must now "focus on the more difficult work of implementing the tasks", he said.

In terms of the road map, the country's 550-member parliament must be reformed by November 19; a final draft constitution should be published by May 18 and adopted by July 1; and presidential and parliamentary elections must be held by August 20, according to a signed copy of the document e-mailed by the UN Political Office for Somalia.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the agreement and urged them to implement it "in the interest of bringing unity, peace and stability to Somalia and its people", according to a spokesperson.

A long-running feud between the president and the speaker of parliament is one reason the government has remained weak and divided.

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