The three national parties of Somaliland and the National Electoral Commission (NEC) agreed to once again postpone the presidential election that was scheduled to take place on 27th March this year.
This was announced in a joint press conference on Wednesdayย morning at the Presidency in Hargeisa by the leaders of national parties namely Muuse Biihi Abdi (Kulmiye), Abdirahman Mohamed Abdillahi (Waddani) and Faysal Ali Waraabe (UCID) as well as NEC Chairman Abdulqadir Iimaan Warsame.
The Chairman of National Electoral Commission Mr. Warsame said at the press conference that the parties finally made consensus after weeks of disagreement and shifted the schedule of presidential election to 10th October 2017. Mr. Warsame added that the parties also agreed both parliamentary and local government elections to be heldย on 10th October 2018.
The parliamentary election is overdue more than six years while the term of the Somaliland local councillors is expiring in November 2017.
The parties did not include the reason for the delay of presidential election in their official agreement but apparently it is due to the severe and persistent droughts that affected most of country.
President Silanyo welcomed the consensus of the national parties and urged Somaliland peopleย to unite for the assistance of drought affected communities.
President Silanyo’s first term was due on 27 July 2015 but the Upper House of Somaliland extended it to March 2017.
Somaliland’s two opposition parties announced on 7th January that they are backing election postponementย after National Electoral Commission revealed that averagely 83% of voters in eastern regions will not be able to obtain their voter cards because of the ongoing droughts. The ruling party had opposed the suggestionย initially and demanded election to take place as per schedule butย agreed with the majorityโs viewย last week.
Below is the official agreement of the national parties signed with the presence of President Silanyo and NEC officials.
