MOGADISHU, Somalia, Aug. 1 (UPI) -- Somali lawmakers overwhelmingly supported a new constitution Wednesday, clearing the way for a new government to be elected in August.
The vote was taken shortly after two suicide bombers detonated their explosives outside the National Constituent Assembly in Mogadishu, the country's capital, China's state-run Xinhua reported.
"One of two men forced his way into a checkpoint at the entrance of the venue and was shot and he exploded while the other blew himself up at the vicinity of the venue," police officer Abdi Nur told Xinhua. "A number of people were wounded."
Somalia's last functioning national government was ousted in 1991 and the subsequent disarray enabled pirates and Islamic militants to set up bases in Somalia.
Under a U.N.-backed plan, a new parliament will choose the next Somali leader Aug. 2, the BBC said.
"This is an historic day," Constitutional Affairs Minister Abdirahman Hosh Jabril said. "Today we have witnessed the completion of a task that has been worked on for the last eight years."
The BBC said the new constitution includes a bill of rights, states Islam is the only religion of the state, requires territorial disputes be settled peacefully and establishes a federal system.
