The first time the two candidates were presented to parliament for endorsement was two weeks ago when parliament endorsed four out of the 7 newly formed NEC candidates, and rejected Mr. M Hamud and Mr. M Omar's candidacy for the NEC nomination because Parliament concluded that their age exceeded the limit permitted by the NEC charter.

Mr. M. Hamud and Mr. M. Omar were re-nominated by the Guurti for the second time on 8 June 07 and forwarded their nomination to the vice-president, Mr. Ahmed Yusuf Yasin to approve and present to parliament for their endorsement. The vice-president presented Mr. M. Hamud and Mr. M. Omar to the chair committee of the House of Representatives, to prepare another motion, for their candidacy to the house. Nevertheless, the chair committee of the house (the speaker and his two deputies) on 11 June 07 wrote back to the vice-president informing him that the two NEC nominated Guurti candidates, Mr. M. Hamud and Mr. M. Omar cannot be accepted by the chair committee of the assembly for referral to the house of representatives because the NEC charter states, `a candidate for the NEC committee board can only be nominated once.'

The letter addressed to the vice-president, written and co-signed by the chair committee of the House of Representatives stated, "even though the House of Elders has nominated, for the second time, Mr. M. Hamud and Mr. M. Omar, to sit on the board of the executive committee of the NEC, and the candidacy of Mr. M. Hamud and Mr. M. Omar was once rejected before by the House of Representatives and could not meet the guidelines set in the NEC charter, we have no alternative but to reject their candidacy and ask the Guurti to re-nominate and replace Mr. M. Hamud and Mr. M. Omar with two other candidates who we could be considered for future referral to the members of the House of Representatives.”

Members of Udub party House of Representatives were angered by the chair committee of the assembly when the chair committee informed the house of their decision to reject the Guurti’s nomination of Mr. M. Hamud and Mr. M. Omar. This created a situation where more than 20 members of the assembly, belonging to Udub party, walked out of last Tuesday's parliament session in protest of the chair committee's decision not to refer Mr. M. Hamud and Mr. M. Omar to the representatives for their endorsement or rejection.

Source: Somaliland Times

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