Hargeisa- Today the council of ministers has approved a new Elections Bill drafted by the Electoral Commission.

The Bill codifies and compiles all election-related laws. It will cover the Presidential, Local Councils and House of Representatives elections.

It also contains the voter registration processes as well.

"Currently Somaliland has separate laws for each election which creates a legal confusion and poses practical challenges,” Guleid Ahmed Jama, a lawyer told Somaliland Daily.

In March 2019, Somaliland scheduled to hold both the House of Representatives and Local Councils elections at one time.

This is the first time Somaliland holds concurrent elections and it required unification of procedures, Guleid said.

"The new development in this law is that it provides a quota for women and minority clans. This is a huge step forward,” he added.

The Bill says that women will have a quota of 18 seats in the House of Representatives. Th number of seats in the House are 82.

The quota for minority clans was not made clear. But the president says the law proposes for the political parties to give 3 seats. However, it is not clear how that will work practically.

Currently, there is only one woman in the House.

The Bill will be submitted to the Parliament.