Major stakeholders unable to reach a truce on Somaliland’s election date

Somaliland’s National Election Commission (NEC) invited the three national parties to have broad discussion on when to hold the municipal and parliamentary election. The opposition parties, ruling party, and Somaliland National Election Commission disagreed on the latest possible timeline for the elections.

The Kulmiye ruling party proposed that elections should be held in six months time while National Elections Commission (NEC) asserted it is possible to hold the elections in ten months time. Opposition party members disagreed on the period.

Despite the multiparty system introduced a long time ago, Somaliland remains infamous for unnecessary presidential, parliamentary, and municipal election delays; no single election has been punctual or timely.

Somaliland president Muse Bihi Abdi succumbed to unrelenting calls by both external agents and internal ones to hold parliamentary and municipal elections to replace overdue MPs who are in parliament for more than 15 years now.