Somalia's Office of the Attorney General said on 6 November that the Supreme Court's ruling that the president's, parliament's and government's terms had expired 'has no legal effect'. The court had ordered agreement on an electoral model within 30 days and elections within 90.
Somalia's Office of the Attorney General on Friday 6 November rejected a ruling by the Supreme Court's constitutional division that the mandates of the president, parliament and federal government had expired, saying the decision "has no legal effect", Dawan Africa reported.
The ruling, issued on 5 November in a case brought by former president Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, found that the terms of both houses of parliament and the government ended on 14 April 2026 and the president's term on 15 May 2026, and that the government should act as a caretaker limited to day-to-day business. The five judges, chaired by Salah Sheikh Ibrahim Dhiblawe, dismissed the challenge to the amendment process itself for lack of standing, but upheld the challenge to the extension of terms. They directed the parties to agree a consensual electoral model within 30 days and to hold elections within 90 days.
The attorney general's objections
The attorney general's office, which represented the government, said the decision was "not in line with the law" and did not represent Somalia's judiciary. According to FTL Somalia and Goobjoog, it argued that the court should have ruled first on its objections to jurisdiction and to the petitioner's standing, that the chief justice should have presided, and that the judges had "created a new case". It said it would take "the appropriate legal step". Dawan noted that the ruling itself records the attorney general's objection as having been considered.
The presidency had not publicly responded to the ruling, or to the court's separate decision voiding President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud's dismissal of Chief Justice Baashe Yusuf Ahmed, at the time of writing. Opposition figures, including Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, welcomed the judgment and urged the president to negotiate. A senior judge told BBC Somali that troops had deployed around the court and that the chief justice had been ordered to leave the premises; CERHA has not been able to verify that account. Adnan Abdi Ali, an analyst at the Somali Center for Studies, told FTL Somalia: "This ruling is unlikely to be implemented, as it comes at a time of ongoing electoral disputes."
Context
Mohamud's government had declared a one-year transition to prepare for direct elections, which the opposition called a power grab. The standoff comes as the UN political mission has closed, Uganda is withdrawing troops from AUSSOM, and the AU and EU security councils have warned of funding gaps for the mission.
Image: Officials open the Banadir Regional Court in Mogadishu in September 2015. UNSOM, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.