The two opposition parties in the self-declared republic of Somaliland have won the majority of seats in last week’s parliamentary elections.
The Somaliland National Party (Waddani) won 31 seats while the Justice and Welfare Party (Ucid) collected 21 seats, the region’s electoral commission said.
The ruling Kulmiye party managing to secure 30 of the 82 seats in the polls.
The opposition win “is a major blow to Kulmiye, which will now lose the Speaker’s seat among other parliamentary leadership seats,” reports the Garowe Online news website.
The new parliament will have no women as none of the female politicians who ran in the elections won their races.
The breakaway republic, which lies on the coast of the Gulf of Aden, has not been recognised internationally since it declared unilateral independence from the rest of Somalia in 1991.
It has held a number of elections successfully.
Source: BBC
