On January 5th members of the 550-seat Federal Transitional Parliament (FTP) in the capital, Mogadishu, endorsed 15 new appointments by the government to the body charged with drafting the new constitution, the Independent Constitutional Commission (ICC), thereby doubling its size. The FTP session was attended by 285 members of parliament (MPs), 276 of whom voted in favour of the new members. Just six MPs voted against and three abstained. The vote came two days after the interim president, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, urged the ICC to finish its draft within 30 days because of the pressing need for a new constitution to be in place before the interim government's term in office ends, in August. The consultation draft provides for a federal state and seeks to establish the supremacy of sharia (Islamic law). However, the system of government was left as an open question in the draft, with no recommendation made as to whether the new Somali state should be presidential, parliamentary or mixed in make-up. The ICC's draft should resolve these questions.

However, Mr Sharif's new prime minister, Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed Farmajo, appears to be working to a less pressing deadline. He told the UN Security Council on January 14th that his government had asked the ICC to expand its consultations with constitutional scholars, lawyers, religious scholars and experts in Somali culture before presenting the new constitution for parliamentary approval and thereafter to public consultation "within the next few months". Differences in opinion about the new draft constitution between Mr Sharif and Mr Farmajo's predecessor, Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, led to Mr Sharmarke's resignation in September (November 2010, The political scene). Sceptics had suggested that the president's stated preference for holding a referendum on the new constitution was a bid to drag out the process for many months, thereby allowing him to extend his term beyond August. However, the expansion of the ICC indicates that he is keen to pass the constitution quickly and to run for another term in office once it is in force. In January the UN special representative for Somalia, Augustine Mahiga, announced that there was universal backing both inside and outside Somalia for the transitional process to end in August as mandated.