At a meeting held at the Somaliland Presidency Palace, Thursday, opposition political parties granted the government and the ruling party two more weeks to find a workable solution to the impasse created by contentious issues the government was accused of propagating.
The leaders of the two opposition parties of UCID and WADDANi, Faisal Ali Waraabe and Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi ‘Irro’, respectively, conferred with His Excellency the President of the Republic of Somaliland, Musa Bihi Abdi, and his Vice President, Abdirahman Abdullahi Ismail ‘Zeili’i’, to iron out a way out to the deadlock impeding early Municipal and parliamentary elections. The two were previously scheduled to be held before mid-2020.
The two sides agreed that the government find a constitutional way out to fulfil recommendations which a voluntary mediation committee released less than two weeks ago. Among the recommendations were the disbandment of the new National Electoral Commission members and reinstatement of the old one.
The sides resolved that the government weed out all legal impediments to the announcement of a new election date by January 10, 2020.
This meant, in other words, that the government was to find a legal window to go back on a parliamentary term extensions and controversial commission members’ nominations of its creation – two developments which greatly and equally angered all of the public, opposition and international development partners.
Today’s meeting was the second among the parties within a week.
President Bihi doubles up as the Chairman of the ruling party – Kulmiye.
