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Others explained, “Somalilanders understand how to use a party to get elected, but they don’t
really know what to do with the party between the election cycle and why it’s important and
why it’s valuable” and “if the opposition or every party has its own strategy, its own internal
democratic systems, it could hold their leaders accountable.” Finally, representatives of
implementing partners and a donor, separately, encouraged the continuance of traditional
political party organizational capacity building support. For example, one interviewee stated,
“the political parties are also not having the training they need. They don’t have the basics like
[fundraising] and membership.” While another explained that it is important to make sure to
get “out into the countryside to train parties and try to reinforce or make sure party structures
exist outside of Hargeisa, because they get set up for elections and then they disappear, and
everything’s in Hargeisa.”
