Somalilandsun: Five former commissioners of the former Somaliland national elections commission who were named as members of a Technical Elections Management Unit-TEMU have rejected the role.
TEMU was established courtesy of a tri-partite political party’s agreement between ruling Kulmiye and opposition Wadani and UCID parties earlier in the year.
The agreement that removed all obstacles to holding the country’s oft postponed parliamentary and local councils elections was brokered by the European Union envoy to Somaliland and Somalia Ambassador Nicholas Berlanga in Hargeisa.
According to the five former election commissioners rather than being as TEMU with overall responsibilities for later in the year slated polls their proposal is to be included in the exercise only as ‘Technical Advisors’ to the National elections commission-NEC.
While NEC is usually composed of seven commissioners two of the immediate past electoral body were re-nominated to the current commission by respective sponsors thence only five were on hand during a meeting with the three national political parties in Hargeisa where they proposed their desired new role.
According to the Berlanga tri-partite accord TEMU had overall responsibility of the forthcoming polls thus relegating the constitutional NEC to a bystander.
The Berlanga Accord that paved the way for Conduct Somaliland Parliamentary and local Council’s elections in 2020 and Signed on the 27th February 2020 in Hargeisa by the three principals namely President Muse Bihi for Kulmiye party, Abdirahman Irro –Wadani and Eng. Feisal Ali Warabe for UCID gave below mandates to TEMU and NEC
Bodies and Responsibilities in the 2020 Elections
The National Elections Commission has the overall and constitutional mandate to manage elections in the country but in the planned 2020 parliamentary and local councils elections it shall delegate day to day management duties to a Technical Elections Management Unit that shall undertake its obligations pursuant to relevant laws of the country. For more details read Technical Unit to Manage 2020 Somaliland Parliamentary and Local Council’s Elections -Parties Agree
