Friday, November 09, 2012
Thousands of people held rally in a football stadium in the Somali capital Mogadishu in support of the newly-formed cabinet of Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdoon on Thursday.
People came into the Konis football stadium in Mogadishu where they carried placards and banners in expressing support for the new Prime Minister and the small cabinet of ministers he formed last week.
Speaking at the rally, the prime minister whose cabinet includes female Foreign Minister, the first in the country's history, vowed he and his government will do all in their power to bring about change in Somalia.
"Me and my cabinet promise in cooperation with all others who made this change possible to double our efforts and make it a reality that this time next year we will have a better security and better conditions in Mogadishu and elsewhere in the country," Prime Minister Shirdoon told the cheering crowd.
Since the announcement of the formation of the new cabinet there have been criticisms by some Somali clans who said they were excluded from the new government.
Officials said that the new government was scaled down to enable it to function efficiently and that "quality rather than quantity" guided the selection.
Somalia have in recent years used a power sharing model known as the 4.5 in which four major clans were given a share and half a share to coalition of minority clans. Some clans said such formula was not followed in forming the current government.
The new cabinet is expected to seek the approval of the country's parliament which will vote o the new government and its programe in the next few days.