A brief history of the political party qualification elections in Somaliland and how the 20% formula was invented

In 2001, Somaliland's constitution was approved in a national referendum. Before the constitution was approved, clan delegates elected the president, the vice president, and members of Parliament. The constitution, however, obligated elections by universal suffrage. Article 9 – the only article in the constitution that is about political parties – states that:

1. The number of political parties in the Republic of Somaliland shall not exceed three.
2. It is unlawful for any political party to be based on regionalism and clannism.

With such limited information in the constitution, deciding how parties should be formed (not exceeding three) and how to avoid parties based on regionalism and clannism became difficult. The drafters of the Political Parties Certification and Associations Registration Act, Law No. 14, in 2001 came up with the following two solutions:

1. Before establishing three political parties, political associations will first be formed, and they will compete, with three qualifying as political parties.
2. To answer the question of how to avoid parties based on regionalism and clannism, the drafters of Law No. 14/2001 included two requirements:
3. Each political association shall have members in all six regions. For example, if a political association fails to have members in one region, it will not be allowed to compete in elections. So, having a minimum number of members in all regions was (is) a must.
4. In the elections, the drafters required party qualification elections where every party/association should secure a minimum of 20% in each region to become eligible to become a national party. If a party/association does not secure a 20% threshold, the party/association with the highest percentages in regions shall become a national party.

Such a formula was used in the elections that took place in 2002 and 2012. The Political Parties Certification and Associations Registration Act, Law No. 14, was amended several times. In all amendments, the two above articles were never changed because they were based on a constitutional principle.

Moreover, in the recent amendments to the law made in 2023/2024, this article was not changed and remained intact. However, it was included in the Elections Act. This is because Parliament decided in 2020 to include all election-related issues in a single compiled law, and that is the Elections Act, Law No. 91/2020 (now Law No. 91/2023).