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Global Studies Africa Textbook: An Open Global Historical Studies Textbook Main Menu East African Politics, Modern History, and International Relations Authors: Anna Bradley, Georgia Coffman, Madyson Duby, Danny Kovalak Art and Culture in East Africa Modern History of Western Africa Introduction for the Modern History of Western Africa chapter Arts and Culture in Western Africa Arts and Culture in Western Africa Chapter Introduction Medicine and Health in West Africa West African Natural Resources A brief summary of West African natural resources Natural Resources in Central Africa Natural Resources in Central Africa Art and Culture of Central Africa Arts and Culture in North Central Africa Economics and Infrastructure in the South African Region Healthcare in Southern Africa Author Credits

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Somalia Politics When it comes to politics in Somalia there are similarities to other countries on how their government is set up. The government consists of three branches the executive, legislative, and judicial branches.

Within the Executive branch, there is a chief of state, head of government, and the cabinet. President Mohamed ABDULLAHI Farmajo is the chief of state and has been since February 8th, 2017 and Prime Minister Hassan Ali KHAYRE since March 1st, 2017. The cabinet has to be appointed by the prime minister and then approved by the House of the People in the Legislative branch. When it comes to the elections or appointments the president is indirectly elected by the federal Parliament by two-thirds majority vote. This process can take up to two rounds if needed for a single four-year term. The last election was supposed to be held on September 30th, 2016 but was postponed repeatedly and was finally held on February 8th, 2017. The prime minister has to be appointed by the president and approved by the House of the People.

The Legislative branch consists of an Upper House and House of the People. The Upper House has fifty-four seats that serve four-year terms, and the senators are indirectly elected by state assemblies. The House of People has two hundred and seventy-five seats and members are indirectly elected by elector colleges. Each electoral college consists of fifty-one delegates that are selected by the one hundred and thirty-six Traditional Elders in consultation with cub-clan elders. The two hundred and seventy-five House of People members are elected to serve a four-year term. The last election for the Upper House was held on October 10th, 2016, and the House of the People election was held from October 23rd to November 10th, 2016.

The Judicial branch contains the highest courts which consist of the Constitutional Court, the Transitional National Charter, the Supreme Court, and the Appeal Court. The Constitutional Court has 5 judges, which include the chief judge and deputy chief judge. During the 2004 term, the Transitional National Charter, the Supreme Court, and the Appeal Court were all established. Even though these different levels of courts were put into place, natives still reverted to local forms of conflict resolution such as secular law, traditional Somali customary law, or Islamic law. The judges for the three different courts have to be appointed by the President upon a proposal of the Judicial Service Commission and the nine-member judicial and administrative body. Similar to many other countries, most cases do not need to be sent to the highest courts, so there are subordinate courts. The subordinate courts include federal courts, federal member state-level courts, military courts, and sharia courts. These courts are designed to take the lower profile court cases, thus the highest courts can focus on the more difficult cases.

Fun Fact
Somalia has 23 active and 1 inactive Political parties and leaders.