Only the existing official political parties will front aspiring presidential and vice-presidential candidates
By M.A. Egge
The Somaliland National Elections Commission (NEC) has officially publicized the date of holding the upcoming simultaneous national elections of both the Presidential and the national political parties.
The NEC at the same time specified the bonafide political parties which will field their aspiring candidates.
In a detailed press release circulated by the elections body on Saturday that was signed by the Chair of the NEC Mr. Musa Hassan Yusuf, the commission declared the following:-
- That the Presidential and Vice-Presidential elections and that of the official National Political Parties elections will be held on the 13th of November 2024.
- That only the aspiring candidates fronted by the three National Official Political Parties of UCID, KULMIYE and WADDANI will be fielded in Presidential and Vice-Presidential elections.
- That the elections of the official National Political Parties will be entered by the existing three official political parties and the ten Political Organizations that had been verified and cleared by the Committee for the Registration and Verification of Political Organizations and Political Parties
It is worth noting that in the context of the country’s national constitution, only three political parties are mandated to exist. With the coming elections, the nation is going to polls for the umpteenth time for yet another general election through universal suffrage by voting in secret ballots in less than a quarter of a century, an unprecedented fete in the Horn of Africa region.
In the NEC circular, the electoral institution quoted various articles that specifies its mandate of slating the elections date.
It specified that the election date has been set a month before the expiry of the current presidential as per the constitution.
Following the official publication of the NEC notice, the declaration will according to the law be forwarded to the Head of State for sanctioning approval for action through a Presidential Decree.
This has at last put to rest political disgruntles that has bedeviled the electioneering processes that was put on hold for a while, following conciliatory efforts that the NEC itself mentioned in its publication hence noted that it also shaped in forming their opinion of setting the elections date.