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#Somaliland@Elections in 2020

There’s going to be some disputes and disagreements about who won or lost in the coming parliamentary and local council elections, I have my doubts.

At the moment, there are no effective selection and ranking criteria for nominating our candidates in Parliament and the Council. The Government and national Parties are responsible for choosing candidates rather than tribes.

Who’s going to tell a certain tribe that their candidate lost?.
In previous elections, it was the party candidates who either won and lost. Now it will be difficult to convince the tribe that their nominee has lost or defeated. Therefore, I have my doubts.

This is truly a diabolical scenario where parliamentary candidates are selected by the tribes, without classification, the elders of the tribe unfortunately select the wrong candidates from the tribe for the country, due to the well know and familiar nepotism and favouritism that prevails in all tribes and sub-clan.

There is no question that clan-based appointment processes, with no institutionalized processes or legal frameworks, are an undeniable cause of devastation and disagreement, as we have seen previously in Somaliland.

Historically, national parties were responsible for the selection of candidates, I don’t know or aware when this was altered?.
Even-though we know that our parties are tribal-based, still the national parties have always been responsible for selecting candidates.

Currently, all parties accept appointments for tribal elders, who I am sure are not the right candidates.

Regardless who brought the candidates, the Parties should apply the existing selection rules and criteria, as appropriate, and review each applicant’s results afterwards, Otherwise, we will have parliamentarians and councilors who will be far worse than what we have at present.

The first point was the fact that the national parties supposedly select and organize candidates for Parliament rather than clan nominations. Parliament and local councils must be accurate, transparent, efficient and reliable representatives to form key, instrumental, credible and peaceful elections. The appointment of a successful nominee will contribute to the maintenance of peace, stability and social harmony.

In selecting an ideal candidate for the country, parties should review the candidates’ experiences. their educational or community accomplishments and activities. their past involvement in a variety of community and extracurricular activities, leadership, accountability, maturity and teamwork, and interpersonal and social skills (the ability to get along well with others).

The constitution, legal rules, legal framework and regulations in force in Somaliland for the selection of parliamentary candidates and all electoral requirements have to be complied with and respected, which must be examine and analyze with respect to persons who are entitled to stand or be eligible for election.

Somaliland government must and should conduct a process of legal reform to examine and revise electoral laws for all local elections, be the councillors, presidential or parliamentary elections.

It is also necessary to introduce new political parties as the existing parties’ time is ending in the year 2022. The existing parties lack any sort of institutionalized structures and decision-making that have paved the way a frequent unresolved internal and national dispute recently.

Also, as Somaliland still uses the seat allocation or allotment formula from the 1960 parliamentary election, I think the time has come now for setting or settle a new seat allocations due to nationwide growth.

The Somaliland government must prepare and appoint credible parliamentary and local nominees as the bear the overall responsibility for the country.

Finally, Somaliland must also become self-sufficient in electoral funding and must not rely on international donors for the future.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Araweelo News Network. Written by. Ahmedyasin Mohamed Jama
aymjama@hotmail.co.uk