Hargeisa, (HargeisaPress) — The Supreme Court of the Republic of Somaliland (ROS), today, adjudicated the disputed presidential and parliamentary elections of Somaliland by pronouncing the extension made to the elected term of the President and his Vice President and the additional extension given to the incumbent House of Representatives (HOR) correct and legal.
A full panel of 11 High Court judges 1 assistant-cum-secretary settled the dispute election dates by a final court decision on this date of 18 August 2015, that ” elections for the President and his Vice president and that of the members of the parliament (HOR) be that put forth on Paragraph ‘B’, subsection 5 of the Guurti (House od Elders – HOE) decision to coincide with a month before the end of the extension of term made for the President and Vice President and the Parliament of the Republic of Somaliland which is on 27 April 2017, in accordance with Article 83, Para 2 and Article 2 and 3 of the Constitution of the Republic of Somaliland.
The Constitution Court judgment, according to the written pronouncement read out by the Chief Justice, was based, among others, on the surmises that:
- The President of the Republic of Somaliland asked of the Court to ‘constitutionally define’ the Guurti decision and the agreement reached by the political parties (Kulmiye, UCID, Waddani) on election dates;
- The President did not ask the court to define whether the Guurti decisionwas constitutional or not, and the fact that no party legally found fault in it;
- There was an absence of a fully endorsed consensus among the political parries before the Guurti reached its decision and the fact that the subsequent agreement among the political parties clearly stated on Para 1 of their joint agreement their mutual respect of the Guurti’s decision;
- The National Electoral Commission (NEC) declared that the elections for President and Vice President cannot be technically held on 26 June 2015
- The Guurti alone is constitutionally mandated to extend elected terms to the different national councils as is stipulated by Article 83, Para 5 and Article 42, Para 3 of the Constitution of the Republic of Somaliland.
Panel of Judges:
- ADam Haji Ali Ahmed _________________ Chairman
- Mohamed Omar Gheelle _________________ Member
- Abdulkadir Ahmed Mohamoud _________________ Member
- Mohamed Farah Saeed _________________ Member
- Ahmed Derie Ghalib _________________ Member
- Ali-Shuaib Sheikh Ibrahim Nour _________________ Member
- Abdirahman Jama Hayyan __________________ Member
- Abdullahi Abdi Adan __________________ Member
- Yahye Ali Idiris __________________ Member
- Abdirahman Hussein Ainan __________________ Member
- Abdirahman Hassan Nour ___________________ Member
- Sahra Ismail Abdullahi ________________ Senior Assistant
Following the judgment, Faisal Ali, UCID political party Chairman, stated that he accepted the decsion as a whole – and without breaking it into details or sections.