Khadija Mohamed Diriye, Somalia’s Minister of Youth and Sports, has claimed that she could be a Member of Parliament (MP) for life.
Diriye, who has been an MP in the Federal Parliament since 2000, said that she has been elected under various electoral models.
Consequently, she believes that voters would reelect her again under the new model recently agreed upon at Dhusamareb III.
Ms. Diriye made this statement during an interview with BBC Somali Service this week.
In 2000, she was elected when traditional elders voted for MPs. In 2016, she was reelected when delegates voted for their preferred MPs.
The 2020 elections were scheduled to be under the one-person-one-vote model until the COVID-19 pandemic and strict timelines ruled that option out.
Under the newly proposed system, each constituency would select 301 delegates to elect their MPs in what is an indirect model.
Diriye said, “I will be elected regardless of the model used. My leadership is from Allah. My aunt served as an MP for 20 years under the presidency of Siad Barre.”
The youth and sports minister is confident that members of her clan are not about to stop reelecting her to continue leading them for the rest of her life.