Somaliland parliamentary election, 2005

In the parliamentary elections in Somaliland on 29 September 2005, the House of Representatives of Somaliland, whose members were appointed by then of the clan, was first determined in a democratic election. After the local elections in 2002 and presidential elections in 2003 it was the third choice in the internationally unrecognized Somaliland, which declared independence from Somalia in 1991.

Implementation

The elections were originally held in 2004. However, they were moved because there were disagreements in the distribution of parliamentary seats across administrative regions and the distribution of electoral districts as well as delays in voter registration. In particular, smaller clans that previously had guaranteed seats, feared, against larger and stronger voter clans to be at a disadvantage.

Since there is still some voters decide even after clan membership, the parties considered this factor. They made tends to more candidates from major sub- clans, as they promised themselves from these more votes. Women had significantly poorer chance of being set up as candidates, since they are not traditionally involved in the clans in the political networks; of 246 candidates were seven women.

Results

With 39 % of the vote, the ruling party UDUB achieved the highest and 33 of 82 seats. The Kulmiye Party came to 34.1 % (28 seats) and the UCID to 26.9 % (21 seats). The two opposition parties formed a coalition that has a majority of 49 seats.

Of the former parliamentarians were just 18 for re-election, 14 of which were re-elected. The new MPs are on average significantly younger than the previous Parliament. For the first time two women are represented; of which one was in Awdal selected with the lowest result of all successful candidates who received other than the candidate UDUB a seat for those parts of Sanaag allocated in which the elections took place. Around 30 members of parliament were attributed to Somaliland Diaspora, of which a large part in the politics of Somaliland is committed and has dual citizenship.

There were accusations that the UDUB have variously abused their influence in the pre-election and on election day itself. Election observers from the International Republican Institute found for most of these allegations is no evidence, however, presented irregularities in the region of Awdal determine where the UDUB reached its highest share of the vote: In the district Lughaya the specified number of votes was about six times as high as in 2003 and in the districts Zeila and Baki about three times as high; also reported to have been in the polling stations replaced by pro-government representatives, some opposition party representatives. Apart from the incidents in Awdal, the elections had been free and fair overall.

Changes in the composition according to clans

With respect to the shares of the clans, there were changes, since now there each clan was allocated a certain number of seats, but only the number of votes per candidate was crucial. Especially the Isaaq - which estimated that up to 80 % of the population make - and next to it the Gadabursi - you have won seats. Within the Isaaq were able to sub- clans of the great Garhajis ( Habr Yunis and Eidagalla ), Habr Awal Habr and Toljaalo registered seat gains, while the smaller sub- clans of the Ayub and Arab have lost seats. The minorities were able to keep any of their previous four seats. Among the losers are because of low turnout in Sanaag and Sool and the Wars Angeli and Dolbohanta, which will contribute to their feeling of being marginalized in Somaliland against Isaaq and Dir. The Issa - you are mainly because of significantly less represented because they increasingly are oriented place to Somaliland after neighboring Djibouti, where they represent the majority of the population and dominate politics.

Swell

• Mark Bradbury: Becoming Somaliland, 2008, ISBN 978-1847013101 (p. 202-216 )

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