Somaliland: Donors Avail $13.5m Towards Voter Registration and 2016 Elections

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President Silanyo welcomes Amb Neil Wigan to to the Somaliland Presidency for Bilateral Talks on 6th Oct

By: Yusuf M Hasan
Somalilandsun – International Stakeholders in the Somaliland Democratization process have commended the National Election Commission-NEC for apt activities since taking office late 2014.
This is per a letter from British envoy to Somalia/Somaliland Amb Neil Wigan sent to President Ahmed Mahmud Silanyo and copied to chair of Guurti, the upper chamber of the Somaliland parliament, NEC and the three national political parties of Kulmiye, UCID and Wadani.
In his letter Amb Neil Wigan also confirmed that the Somaliland Democratization Steering Committee-DSC a stakeholder’s coordination body of which Britain is current chair, is in possession of $13.5m to support a voter registration process and forthcoming presidential and Parliamentary elections slated for mid-2016.
While a casual perusal will only discern praises to NEC, Government and political parties plus bewilderment on why the 2015 date became untenable, the letter does indeed convey threats, couched in the usual British diplomatic jargon, of dire consequences for further delay to elections beyond July 2016.
The letter was followed by a team of UK diplomats based in Addis Ababa Ethiopia
Read below a scanned copy of the letter