Parliamentary elections to hold this year in Somaliland

Hargeisa, July 27 (Somaliland.com) Political parties in Somaliland have today reached an eight-point consensus for holding the parliamentary elections this year.

This agreement was brokered by the EU ambassador to Somalia, Mr. Nicolas Berlanga, who has invested great efforts to achieve this breakthrough.

The parties agreed to dismiss the current members of the National Election Commission (NEC) and form a new 9-member commission.

The three political parties will each nominate three members of the commission. This is a departure from the previous policy where the opposition parties have minority representation by nominating only two out of seven electoral commissioners.

Nearly two years has been expended over this election impasse, allowing the overdue parliament to remain on the seat for more than 14 years. Negotiations have progressed sluggishly, but the recent meeting is the first to feature external stakeholders, the EU, as mediators.

The Waddani political party disagrees that the current NEC members should prepare the ground for the next election. The party argued that the NEC term ends in November, just weeks before the election, and since they previously oversaw a flawed election in 2017, “how can they be trusted to conduct a better process now?” quipped Mr. Hussein Ahmed Aideed who is part of Waddani’s team for election negotiations.

Waddani had proposed dismissing the current NEC the year before, but the president and the ruling Kulmiye party objected to this demand. Political analysts and observers posit that replacing all the commissioners is not a good omen as that would call into question the legitimacy of 2017 Kulmiye’s victory, saying the NEC is competent.

The third political party, UCID (For Justice and Development), has always pulled its weight behind Kulmiye on issues as this in recent times, and its position this time is not any different, it also holds that the NEC should not be dispersed for a new one.