Somalia's federal parliament has entered a caretaker phase after its four-year term expired without a new succession plan in place, leaving the country's already disputed political transition in a more uncertain state. The lapse matters because the parliament has been the legal foundation for the current federal government since 2022, and lawmakers now admit they cannot carry out the full range of normal legislative powers.
According to Hiiraan Online, the bicameral parliament's mandate ended on April 14 under Article 60 of the provisional constitution. The same body was sworn in on April 14, 2022, and went on to provide the framework for the election of President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud in May 2022 and the later formation of the federal government. That timeline means the legislature has now reached the end of the mandate that gave the current administration its institutional base.
One lawmaker, Abdulatif Muse Sanyare, said the chamber can only handle essential and routine matters while acting as a caretaker. He said it cannot pass new laws or approve major agreements until a new parliament with full legitimacy is formed. He also said the legislature's ability to summon or dismiss ministers is effectively suspended, which weakens one of the few formal checks on the executive during the transition period.
The succession issue is complicated by political maneuvering around the speakership and by constitutional amendments passed before the term ended. Speaker Sheikh Adan Mohamed Nur, also known as Madoobe, is reported to be weighing a run for the presidency of Southwest State, a move that could further reshape the internal balance of the federal system. At the same time, the federal parliament approved changes that would extend the mandates of federal institutions from four to five years and move Somalia toward a one-person, one-vote system.
That change has become a new fault line. The federal government has defended it as a necessary step toward a more direct electoral system. Puntland and Jubbaland, along with opposition groups, have rejected the amendments, arguing that the provisional constitution still clearly sets a four-year term and that the changes were made without broad national consensus. In other words, the question is not simply that the old parliament has expired. It is also that different parts of the political system disagree on what should replace it.
The result is a caretaker parliament with limited authority and no obvious path to a clean reset. Somalia has gone through repeated constitutional and electoral disputes, and the latest deadline only sharpens the same problem: the country can identify the expiry of a mandate more easily than it can agree on what the next mandate should look like. For now, the federal government is functioning under provisional arrangements, but the political argument over legitimacy is far from settled.
If no successor is agreed soon, caretaker rule could delay budget decisions, slow oversight and give regional leaders more incentive to challenge the center. The term expiry is therefore not just a calendar problem but a practical test of whether the federal state can keep functioning.
