Somalia’s Supreme Court rules President Mohamud’s term expired in May
Somalia's Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that the mandates of parliament and the government ended on April 14 and President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud's on May 15. It voided all their actions since then and gave political actors 30 days to agree on an election framework.
Somalia's Supreme Court has ruled that the one-year extension of President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud's term was unlawful. The court's five-member Constitutional Division issued the ruling in Mogadishu on Thursday, Garowe Online reported. It found that the mandates of the president, the federal government and both houses of parliament had already run out in 2026. The court set out the expiry dates. Parliament's and the federal government's mandates ended on April 14, 2026, Garowe Online reported. Mohamud's term ended on May 15, 2026. The judges declared every action the institutions took after those dates unconstitutional, unlawful, and null and void. The court's reasoning turned on how the 2026 constitutional amendments were drafted. According to Garowe Online, the judges said any amendment introducing new terms of office must state clearly whether it applies to sitting institutions. The 2026 changes did not. The four-year terms under the 2012 Provisional Constitution therefore still applied. The case came from a petition by former President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed. The court threw out his challenge to the amendment process itself, ruling that he lacked legal standing. It upheld his second claim, against the extension of the mandates. The court said the federal government may stay on as a caretaker, but only to run routine business. It ordered all parties involved in the electoral process…
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