Somali Parliamentarians have started leaving the southern town of Baidoa for Djibouti City, capital of neighbouring Djibouti, where the Somali Presidential election is scheduled to be held later this month, the Deputy Speaker said on Thursday.
Since the former Somali President Abdulahi Yusuf Ahmed resigned late December, the venue for the presidential election has been a point of disagreement within the Somali transitional government as some including the Parliament Speaker, Adan Madobe, maintained that the election be held in the Parliamentary seat of Baidoa while others said it should be held in Djibouti city.

"We have agreed to go along with the Speaker who is also the acting President of the state. He urged us to the common consensus that we go to Djibouti for the election of the President and we are going there," said Osman Ali Boqore, Deputy Speaker, as nearly 50 Members of Parliament boarded a chartered plane bound for Djibouti.
The remaining lawmakers are expected to fly to Djibouti on Friday where the Speaker of Parliament, Adan Madobe will also arrive to chair the final session of the current 275-member Somali Parliament which will approve its expansion to include members from the opposition, Boqore said.
The new expanded assembly would include 275 new members with 200 of them from the opposition Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS) while the 75 members will be distributed among Somali civil society and the Diaspora, according to an agreement between the Somali transitional government and the opposition last year.
Under the agreement, the new Parliament will elect new senior government leaders such as the President and the Speaker within the legal time limit of thirty days starting after December 29 of the past year when the former President resigned. A number of politicians have announced their candidacy in the presidential election in Djibouti later in the month.