No funds for poll delay overheads- International Community warns Somaliland

The International Community said it will not be able to fund the additional costs that the decision to delay the Parliamentary elections will incur following  the breakaway Somaliland ‘s decision  to postpone parliamentary elections.

“We call on the President to urgently set out a clear process, with timelines, to achieve a fair seat allocation formula and political representation for all Somalilanders in the election of their Parliament,” reads statement jointly issued by US, UK, EU, UN, SWEDEN, DENMARK.

The statement further pointed out that the postponement has been announced without a clear legal or constitutional basis.

“We reiterate that fixed term Parliamentary elections now would still enable both reforms in the parliamentary seat allocation and a reconciliation process to take place during the Parliamentary term. We therefore urge the President of  Somaliland to reconsider his decision, and to hold the Presidential and Parliamentary elections together in March 2017,” said the statement.

The International Community said that it has provided substantial support to this electoral process on the basis of  Somaliland’s commitments to timely, concurrent Presidential and Parliamentary elections.

“The imminent and successful completion of the voter registration process determines a clear timeline for the polls in March 2017, which we cannot afford to change. Donors have invested heavily in the electoral preparation and do not want to see this commitment undermined and depleted by continuous delays,” lamented the community.

Earlier this week, the president of Somaliland, Ahmed Mohamed Silaanyo set presidential elections on the 28th March 2017 while the Parliamentary elections postponed for unspecified period, citing the Parliamentary elections are not feasibility with the current regionally inequitable seats distribution.

Somaliland’s house of representatives has serving for over eleven years and the region has not held parliamentary elections since 2005.

Somaliland, former colony of Britain declared a unilateral independence from the rest of Somalia in 1991 but no country has so far recognized it as an independent state.