Somalia’s Supreme Court Declares President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s Term Expired, Orders Elections Within 90 Days – The five-member Constitutional Division of the court, led by Justice Salah Sheikh Ibrahim Dhiblawe, determined that constitutional amendments passed by parliament in March 2026 which extended presidential and parliamentary terms from four to five years cannot apply retrospectively to sitting institutions. It ruled that both houses of the Federal Parliament’s terms ended on April 14, 2026, and that actions taken by the president, parliament, and government after those dates are “unconstitutional, unlawful and null and void.”
The government may continue only in a limited caretaker capacity for routine administrative duties. The court did not name a replacement president or specify consequences if the deadlines are missed. The judgment followed a petition by former President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed challenging the amendments and their application.
The ruling escalates a months-long political crisis. Mohamud’s government has argued the extension was necessary to prepare for Somalia’s first nationwide direct (one-person-one-vote) elections since 1969, replacing the long-standing clan-based indirect system.
The electoral commission had scheduled parliamentary polls for April 15, 2027, and a presidential vote the following month a timetable now thrown into uncertainty and rejected by opposition groups and the regional administrations of Puntland and Jubaland.
The decision came one day after Mohamud dismissed Chief Justice Bashe (Baashe) Yusuf Ahmed and appointed former Chief Justice Ibrahim Idle Suleiman in his place, citing concerns about judicial administration.