Hargeisa (SD) – Countries encouraging Somaliland’s democratic process have welcomed the agreement to hold elections for representatives and municipality in Somaliland.

Countries that have issued the support statement include Denmark, European Union, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and United States.

“The international partners supporting Somaliland’s democratization process welcome the announcement that parliamentary and local council elections will take place on 31 May 2021.” Said a joint statement.

The countries supporting the elections in Somaliland have said they will provide financial and technical support to the Somaliland Electoral Commission, in the country’s upcoming elections.

We commend the Somaliland government for its commitment to ensuring elections are delivered on time, and to providing the majority of the funding for these elections. The international community has provided financial support to the NEC for the voter registration phase (from EU, Sweden and UK), and we look forward to providing further financial and non-financial support for remaining stages of the election process.

These countries also called on the three parties in Somaliland to abide by the previous agreement reached by the three parties on the quota for women and marginalized communities.

“We welcome the 3 September 2020 commitment signed by the three political parties to collectively “nominate 18 women candidates” and “three candidates from the minority clans” for the parliamentary elections. We call on all parties to extend this commitment to the local council elections and to take further steps to ensure greater political representation of women, youth and minority clans after the May elections.” said the statement.

The statement comes as the president of Somaliland said yesterday that Somaliland will pay the entire election expenses.