Vol. 8 Issue 7 - Public International Law & Policy Group

Sharmarke, 48, has worked with the United Nations in Sudan and Sierra Leone, holds
Canadian citizenship and obtained degrees in political science and political economy from
Carleton University in Ottawa.
He is a member of the same Darod subclan -- the Majarteen -- as former president Abdullahi
Yusuf Ahmed, who resigned late last year.
According to Somalia's transitional charter, the president, the prime minister and the
parliament speaker have to belong to three different major clans.
Sheikh Sharif, a young Islamist cleric who was elected as president by parliament late last
month, is a member of the Hawiye clan.
The incoming prime minister's father, Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, was the last
democratically-elected president of the Horn of Africa country.
He was assassinated in October 1969. Days later, Mohamed Siad Barre took power in a
bloodless coup and remained there until his overthrow in 1991 plunged the country into
anarchy.
Sharmarke replaces Nur Hassan Hussein, who had led Somalia's transitional federal
government since November 2007 and lost in the presidential election held last month in
Djibouti.
According to the charter, Sharmarke will have a month from the moment of his official
appointment to pick a cabinet, which will in turn have to be approved by parliament.
Mohamed Abdi Yusuf, a human rights activist in Mogadishu, said: "This is an opportunity
that Somali people should benefit from because the nominated prime minister comes from a
well-known political dynasty and I hope he won't miss chances to succeed peace."
"The nomination is the right choice because his father was a fair president so that I hope the
son will follow him and will lead the country in the path of peace and prosperity," a resident
of the capital, Amina Mohamed Issa, added.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, whose forces backed the government in driving an
Islamic regime out of Mogadishu at the end of 2006, has greeted the the appointment of
Sharif and Sharmarke with caution.
"The new Somalia president has assured as that his intention is to promote peace within
Somalia and with its neighbors," he told journalists late Friday in Addis Ababa.