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parliamentary elections. They’re [currently] staggered and everything just keeps
getting delayed and it just gets so expensive…so they really need to do some
serious thinking and work on the electoral reform.
Interviewees also explained that harmonizing elections will allow for the costs associated with
holding elections to be reduced, especially as the Somaliland government has struggled to fund
electoral processes to date and has looked to the international community for assistance. This
will allow for a longer period between elections. In turn, this will allow both Somaliland
stakeholders and the international donor community with the opportunity to dedicate time and
resources to support other, non-election related, democracy and governance initiatives;
“elections are so frequent that there is no time for actual governing – everyone is always
completely focused on elections.” According to interviewees:
I think it’s our feeling that having an election practically every year or year and a
half in Somaliland is not useful because it detracts attention from governing the
country… What we would have [with harmonized elections] is a normal election
cycle where, yes, we’re all gearing up a bit because it’s a busier time but it
doesn’t have to go into these peaks and valleys.
and:
What we have been pushing for a long time is the need to consolidate the
electoral process in Somaliland. Not to just run from one election to the other
and always fix the problems and the challenges in the short term when tensions
arise or delays occur [but] come to a more regulated electoral cycle that is
affordable, economically affordable but also politically. Politically in the sense,
that if you have an election every two years, politics become focused entirely on
that only… there has to be a time without elections where someone can govern
and actually do something with this mandate.
Political Party Development
One of the areas that the implementing partners interviewed prioritized for international donor
support more frequently than the donors themselves, was political party development.
Implementing partners particularly focused on the need to strengthen the political parties’
ability to fulfill their role between elections as representatives of Somaliland citizens and, for
the parties not in power, to serve as an effective opposition. One implementing partner
interviewed stated:
Parties are the best way to make sure that concerns [of ordinary citizens] that are
not in Hargeisa are going to get heard at the national level. So, if you have a
strong party system that is present all over the country, then hopefully those
messages and priorities can get filtered up to the national level. Because as the
way it is now, decisions are simply made by an elite, without really thinking or
understanding what the priorities need to be based on what people want…Parties
are the best avenue you can have to have local opinion represented at a national
level.
