page_title: Somaliland
section_title: Politics and government
hierarchical_section_title: Somaliland / Politics and government
caption_attribution_description: English: The House of Representatives (Lower House of Parliament) in Hargeisa, capital of Somaliland (Somalia).
context_page_description: Somaliland, officially the Republic of Somaliland, is a self-declared state, internationally considered to be part of Somalia. The government of the de facto state of Somaliland regards itself as the successor state to the former British Somaliland protectorate, which, in the form of the briefly independent State of Somaliland, united as scheduled on 1 July 1960 with the Trust Territory of Somaliland to form the Somali Republic.
  Somaliland lies in northwestern Somalia, on the southern coast of the Gulf of Aden. It is bordered by the remainder of Somalia to the east, Djibouti to the northwest, and Ethiopia to the south and west. Its claimed territory has an area of 176,120 square kilometres, with approximately 4 million residents. The capital and the largest city is Hargeisa, with a population of around 1,500,000 residents.
  In 1988, the Siad Barre government began a crackdown against the Hargeisa-based Somali National Movement and other militant groups, which were among the events that led to the Somali Civil War. The conflict left the country's economic and military infrastructure severely damaged.
context_section_description: The guurti worked with rebel leaders to set up a new government, and was incorporated into the governance structure, becoming the Parliament's House of Elders. The government became in essence a "power-sharing coalition of Somaliland's main clans," with seats in the Upper and Lower houses proportionally allocated to clans according to a predetermined formula, although not all clans are satisfied with their representation. In 2002, after several extensions of this interim government, Somaliland transitioned to multi-party democracy. The election was limited to three parties, in an attempt to create ideology based elections rather than clan based elections. As of December 2014, Somaliland has three political parties: the Peace, Unity, and Development Party, the Justice and Development Party, and Wadani. Under the Somaliland Constitution, a maximum of three political parties is allowed.
  The Executive is led by an elected president, whose government includes a vice-president and a Council of Ministers. The Council of Ministers, who are responsible for the normal running of government, are nominated by the President and approved by the Parliament's House of Representatives. The President must approve bills passed by the Parliament before they come into effect. Presidential elections are confirmed by the National Electoral Commission of Somaliland. The President can serve a maximum of two five-year terms.
  Legislative power is held by the bicameral Parliament. Its upper house is the House of Elders, this chamber is chaired by Suleiman Mohamoud Adan, and the lower house is the House of Representatives. The lower house is chaired by Bashe Mohamed Farah. Each house has 82 members. Members of the House of Elders are elected indirectly by local communities for six-year terms. The House of Elders shares power in passing laws with the House of Representatives, and also has the role of solving internal conflicts, and an exclusive power to extend the terms of the President and representatives under circumstances that make an election impossible. Members of the House of Representatives are directly elected by the people for five-year terms. The House of Representatives shares voting power with the House of Elders, though it can pass a law that the House of Elders rejects if it votes for the law by a 2/3's majority, and has absolute power in financial matters and confirmation of Presidential appointments (except for the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court).
  The judicial system is divided into district courts, (which deal with matters of family law and succession, lawsuits for amounts up to 3 million SL, criminal cases punishable by up to 3 years imprisonment or 3 million SL fines, and crimes committed by juveniles), regional courts (which deal with lawsuits and criminal cases not within the jurisdiction of district courts, labour and employment claims, and local government elections), regional appeals courts (which deal with all appeals from district and regional courts), and the Supreme Court (which deals with issues between courts and in government, and reviews its own decisions), which is the highest court and also functions as the Constitutional Court.
  Somaliland nationality law defines who is a Somaliland citizen, as well as the procedures by which one may be naturalised into Somaliland citizenship or renounce it.
  The Somaliland government continues to apply the 1962 penal code of the Somali Republic. As such, homosexual acts are illegal in the territory.
  Freedom House ranks the Somaliland government as partly democratic. Seth Kaplan (2011) argues that in contrast to southern Somalia and adjacent territories, Somaliland, the secessionist northwestern portion of Somalia, has built a more democratic mode of governance from the bottom up, with virtually no foreign assistance. Specifically, Kaplan suggests that Somaliland has the most democratic political system in the Horn of Africa because it has been largely insulated from the extremist elements in the rest of Somalia and has viable electoral and legislative systems as well as a robust
caption: House of Representatives (Lower House) of the Somaliland Parliament.
exif: {"Image Make": "Apple", "Image Model": "iPhone 5s", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image Software": "Microsoft Windows Photo Viewer 6.1.7600.16385", "Image DateTime": "2015:03:08 11:12:02", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "2300", "Image LensSpecification": "[83/20, 83/20, 11/5, 11/5]", "Image LensMake": "Apple", "Image LensModel": "iPhone 5s back camera 4.15mm f/2.2", "Image Padding": "[]", "Image OffsetSchema": "4196", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/4115", "EXIF FNumber": "11/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "32", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2015:03:03 15:04:13", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2015:03:03 15:04:13", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "1777/148", "EXIF ApertureValue": "7983/3509", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "18319/1620", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "83/20", "EXIF SubjectArea": "[1627, 1223, 1793, 1078]", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "93", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "93", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3264", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2448", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "2448/1973", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "36", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Padding": "[]", "EXIF OffsetSchema": "2022"}