The regime sought to strip parliamentary immunity outside the assembly chamber

Evidence

The leadership wanted to limit these rights to the premises of the parliament only. It sought to bribe enough MPs to agree to this proposition to gather the necessary two-thirds votes to effect the change to the constitution. Hussen focused his criticism on this agenda and used his party and parliament platform to alert MPs and the population about what was at stake. He informed those in parliament who would listen to him that the regime’s strategy was for MPs to commit political suicide, as they would not be safe from government intimidation outside the parliament building. Hussen underscored the gradual erosion of civil service autonomy and cited a number of civil servants who had been dumped by the regime without the due process afforded by the Civil Service Commission. — Abdi Ismail Samatar, Africa’s First Democrats, 1036

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader chapter narrative of the regime’s slide toward authoritarianism before the 1969 coup.