Somaliland MPs walk out of parliament session

Members of Parliament from Sanaag, Sool, Salal, Awdal, and Buhodle constituencies walked out of the parliament yesterday in protest against a motion related to the agreement reached by Somaliland’s three national political parties recently.

Before the parliamentarians vacated the session, the MP’s asserted that the accord signed by the parties has nothing to do with them if the issue of the parliamentary election quota system is not put to rest once and for all.

The issues in dispute include the members of the electoral commission, the parliament quota system which is linked to seat allocations, women representation, the voter’s registration, and national census. A spokesperson for the parliamentarians that staged the walkout stated that the government has failed to conduct a census which will settle the row over seat allocations for each and every province in Somaliland.

The ministry of interior was also accused of obstructing the launching of voter’s registration in Sanaag and Sool provinces in Somaliland which is its sole responsibility.
The parliamentarians allegedly said that the Home Affairs Ministry has failed to bring the identification cards to the eastern regions in the state which is a problem to the locals.

The spokesperson pinpointed that the locals in the eastern regions demand to have a fair representation in the parliament: ‘They said that since we are representing the east and west remote regions, that we have no fair say in the political parties as we don’t have a political party’.

Political pundits have envisaged these emerging issues and predicted that they may become clogs to the progress of the parliamentary election process despite the attempt by the ruling Kulmiye party to quash speculations of postponement.