Hargeysa, Somaliland, December 20, 2008 (SL Times) – Somaliland president Dahir Riyale Kahin disclosed on Friday that his government was ready to fund the National Electoral Commission to enable the latter register eligible voters at newly established polling stations in eastern Sanag and Sool regions.

The NEC’s budget was originally based on the assumption that 998 polling stations which existed in the 2005 parliamentary elections would be used as centers for the country-wide registration-drive.

However since bringing large swathes of land in Sool and eastern Sanag under its control in the last 2-years, the Riyale government has been pushing for facilitation of the new constituencies’ participation in the Somaliland electoral process.

An assessment team compromising NEC commissioners, government officials and representatives of the political parties visited the areas in question in November.

Based on the recommendations of the assessment team, the NEC approved additional registration centers for Sool (101) and Sanag (60).

However the NEC was unable to raise any additional funds from its external donors for the purpose of meeting the costs it expected to incur as a result of the new 161 registration centers.

Initially the Somaliland government and the governments of Denmark, Norway, Sweden , the USA and the UK as well as the European Commission were supposed to fund the registration process. However the Somaliland government defaulted in the payment of its share of the contributions.

According to Somaliland officials, the government is now expected to spend around one million dollar in order to enable the NEC carryout its additional voter registration responsibilities and tasks.

Meanwhile latest NEC reports estimate the number of voters registered at the Togdheer region this week at 300, 000.

Sool and Sanag will be last 2 regions to witness the voter registration drive in the next 2 weeks.

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