Our activities

1. 1. Technical assistance to the drafting and finalization of National Independent Electoral Commission (NIEC) law in 2014 and 2015. The project also advised the Parliamentary Committee on the inclusion in the NIEC Law of minimum quota for women representation in the Commission;
   2. Building electoral, physical and institutional capacity of the NIEC since the appointment of the Commissioners in July 2015 in various areas i.e:
      1. Development of the understanding and knowledge of Commissioners and Secretariat Staff on electoral process through multiple trainings and workshops i.e Workshops on Electoral Administration, Governance and Leadership, Gender mainstreaming, Introduction to Voter registration, Public outreach, Human rights and Election, among others. In addition, the Commission has been taken to study tours in other African and Arab country to observe firsthand the conduct of elections and electoral operations such as Voter Registration, Polling Operations;
      2. Construction of temporary office space, provision of office equipment, and ongoing logistical support for the NIEC able to operate and implement activities;
      3. Support to the development of the NIEC’s five year Strategic Plan (2017-2021), as the country’s electoral roadmap to organize its first universal elections in 2020;
      4. Support to the development of NIEC s external relations strategy concerning engagement with key national and subnational stakeholders and the larger public, through press conferences and statements, the developments of the NIEC Website, support to the NIECs International recognition and membership of the Arab EMBS, as well as ongoing engagement with the different Federal Member States of Somalia;
      5. Development of draft regulations and procedures for electoral operations including political party registration;
      6. Institutional capacity development of NIEC including Logistical and administrative support to the NIEC Secretariat and deployment of national advisors embedded in the NIEC;
      7. Support to the completion of the first Somali Lexicon of electoral terminology. The Lexicon establishes a common linguistic framework (Somali-English-Arabic) which will be a key resource for legal drafting, training of electoral staff and electoral operations and public outreach.
   3. During the same period, the project legal advice and technical input to the development of the electoral legal framework including:
      1. Support to the drafting process of the Electoral Law through the establishment of a technical -level Electoral Law Working Group within the Ministry of Interior and Federal Affairs and Reconciliation(MOIFAR), as well as advisory to MOIFAR, NIEC and Government officials on comparative electoral systems and their relevance to Somalia;
      2. Technical assistance to the review of the Political Party Law;
      3. Compilation of historical electoral legislation i.e. the translation from old laws in Italian to Somali and subsequent publication of electoral legislations from the 1950s-1960s.

During the 2016 limited franchise electoral process, the project provided intense technical, logistical and financial support to the ‘2016 indirect electoral process’ for a new Federal Parliament, in particularly support to the FIEIT, SIEIT, and IEDRM to prepare for and finalize all electoral activities while continuing to underscore norms for future universal electoral process. The Project provided support to 13,000 clan-based voting delegates who voted according to sub-clan lines for their respective representatives in the Federal House of the People of Somalia (275 seats).