THT-Hargeisa- The leadership of the three national parties UCID, KULMIYE and WADDANI, today signed a formal agreement on the holding of joint elections for local councils and the House of Representatives in 2020.
The formal agreement reached in the run-up to the local council elections was signed by the president of the Republic of Somaliland, Mr. Muse Bihi Abdi and UCID party chair Eng. Faisal Ali Hussein (Faisal Ali-Warabe and WADDANI, Mr. Abdirahman Mohamed Abdilahi (Irro).
They also ratified the current electoral commission to administer the elections and the ex-commissioners to serve as technical members.
They also said that from now on, the national political parties will put their confidence on the current electoral commission to proceed with their duties.
According to the official statement, Kulmiye, UCID & Wadani have agreed the upcoming parliamentary polls to follow the equal power sharing formula in 2005 parliamentary elections although the main question is that are the political parties entitled to reach a final settlement on the controversial equal power sharing formula for the parliament.
It was in February this year when the two opposition leaders along with Somaliland President Musa Bihi Abdi agreed to reach a political resolution to the electoral standoff as well as paving the way for conducting free and fair polls in the country.
Somaliland postponed its parliamentary and local council polls on several occasions despite protests from the opposition political parties. The term of the House of Reps. expired in 2010 and the local council’s term also ended in 2017.
For past couple of years the political national parties have locked horns to form an impartial electoral commission.