CORRECTED-Somalia parliament speaker drops impeachment motion against president

(Corrects para 8 to show lawmaker said the speaker has no
constitutional right to throw out impeachment motion))
MOGADISHU, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Somalia's parliamentary
speaker has withdrawn an impeachment motion brought against
President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud - the latest crisis to threaten
the country's stability as it struggles to rebound from two
decades of chaos and war.
Somali lawmakers last month filed the motion against
Mohamud, accusing him of abuse of office and "betraying the
country". Mohamud has said he is committed to holding elections
before his term runs out in August 2016.
International envoys have urged a rapid resolution to the
crisis. ID:nL1N10V093
"We have dropped the motion against the president,"
parliament's speaker Mohamed Sheikh Osman Jawari said late on
Friday, adding he had convened a meeting on Oct.7 to try to
resolve the issues raised in the motion.
Jawari said he made his decision because the majority of
parliament's 275 lawmakers wanted the motion resolved through
dialogue. "This also came after considering the political,
security and economic situation of the country and the short
period available," he added.
But Mohamed Abdullahi Fadhaye, one of the 93 lawmakers who
supported the impeachment motion, rejected the speaker's
decision.
"We have neither discussed nor given up the motion. We shall
take the matter to the court," Fadhaye told Reuters on Saturday.
He said Jawari had no constitutional right to throw out the
motion but added the lawmakers who backed it would meet later on
Saturday to discuss the development.
It was not clear how the lawmakers who filed the motion
allege the president had abused his office or betrayed the
country.
Donors have complained Mohamud's cash-strapped government is
not doing enough to fight graft and say the theft of scarce
government resources had frustrated efforts to build a
functioning state.
A 2013 corruption scandal involving the repatriation of
overseas Somali state assets frozen at the outset of civil war
in 1991 has further strained his relationship with donors.
Mohamud and those close to him have repeatedly denied any
wrongdoing.
Al Qaeda-linked Islamist militant group al Shabaab, which
wants to topple the Western-backed government and impose its
strict interpretation of Islam on Somalia, has been driven out
of major strongholds by African and Somali forces but continues
to launch bomb and gun attacks.