Somalia’s Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi survived a crucial no confidence motion in parliament on Sunday, sparking a brawl in the legislature which saw armed police enter to take control.
Legislators punched each other and wrestled on the ground in chaotic scenes witnessed by a Reuters correspondent after Gedi garnered 88 votes versus 126 for his opponents -- short of the two-thirds majority needed to censure him.
Defeat would have sparked the dissolution of the interim government’s executive, already in disarray over the threat from an Islamist movement that has taken the capital Mogadishu.
Immediately after the vote result was formally announced, police came into parliament, which meets in a former grain warehouse, to pull lawmakers apart and escort Gedi out.
