By Ahmed Kheyre

The Somaliland House of Elders recent endeavor to resolve the political stalemate regarding the forthcoming Presidential elections has met with some success.

After an all night session, 77 members of the House of Elders voted to extend the mandate of the incumbent President, Mr. Dahir Rayale Kahin until one month after the Presidential election date. The new election date will be set after consultation between all three political parties, subject to the resolution of the technical issues related to the voter registration program and its tools.

In a move welcomed by both opposition parties in Somaliland, as well as, the international community and donor nations, the Somaliland House of Elders once again returned to the winning formula of dialogue, discussion and consensus.

In a related matter, all three Somaliland political parties, UDUB, KULMIYE and UCID have agreed to a six point proposal put together by the International donors to Somaliland's election process, including the USA, EU, Ethiopia and several other interested parties.

These six points are as follow;

1. Changes in the electoral commission should be made.

2. The election server should be re-instated and technical experts will come to Somaliland to fix the server’s problems.

3. The date of the election will be set by the commission and the technical experts and it is a technical matter.

4. To work together.

5. This election as well as future elections should be based on voter-registration.

6. The three political parties should issue a joint statement.

Once again, Somaliland has proved its democratic maturity in resolving issues that would have sunk and continue to plague other regions on the Horn of Africa.

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