Customized Political Parties and Contestants

The Political Parties and Contestants Course, Hargeisa Somaliland, 20-23 February 2025

The National Institute for Multiparty Democracy (NIMD), with funding from the Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO), and in partnership with the Commission for the Registration of Political Associations and Approval of National Parties (RAC) of Somaliland, hosted a four-day BRIDGE Political Parties and Contestants workshop in Hargeisa. The workshop, held from February 20-23, 2024, at Assod Hotel, brought together twenty five participants (all women) who are representatives from three women’s wings, the National Electoral Commission, and Civil Society. The workshop’s focus was on strengthening the capacity of political parties and associations, providing deeper insights into the various types, characteristics, and roles of political parties in the context of Somaliland’s current political situation. Participants also gained valuable knowledge about the evolving roles of political parties and the crucial function of RAC in registration, regulation and collaboration with political parties and candidates.

The Political Parties and Contestants course equipped the participants with a comprehensive understanding of the characteristics, and roles of political parties and importance of RAC as one of the main institutions responsible for regulating, monitoring, enforcing, and controlling the operations of political parties in Somaliland.

The workshop materials were customized to the context of Somaliland and helped political parties understand their role and how they will interact with regulatory bodies like EMBs and RAC. The workshop was facilitated by a blend of local and international Accrediting Facilitators Rindai Chipfunde Vava from Zimbabwe, Royd Katongo from Zambia, local ones Saeed Mohamed Elmi Siradle and Muhyadiin Yousuf Ibrahim.

The workshop was officially opened by Mr. Saeed Mohamed Elmi – Siraadle, Chairperson of the Commission for the Registration of Political Associations and Approval of National Parties (RAC), with Dr. Abdirahman Gaas from NIMD extending a warm welcome to all participants. The agenda for the session centred on key discussions surrounding Political Parties, candidates, and the vital relationship between RAC and political parties.

The participants were introduced to the concept of political parties, their roles and responsibilities, programmatic parties, and their characteristics. This focused on helping participants understand programmatic parties and the role and characteristics of modern democratic parties. Further, the course explored the role, levels, and design of political party strategic planning, party research, think tank wings, and intra-party democracy. Participants expressed their appreciation for gaining valuable insights into the core steps of strategic planning. They highlighted that the knowledge acquired, including the development of values, vision, and mission, as well as the practical application of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis, will be instrumental in enhancing their parties’ strategic approaches moving forward.

Further, sessions cover campaign finance income and expenditure management and different regulations related to campaign and political financing, encompassing both Somaliland regulations and best practices from other countries. On RAC and political parties’ relationships the session emphasized managing stakeholder relationships, with a special focus on the keeping positive relationships between political parties and RAC for promoting a peaceful environment and how best to regulate political party activities.

Participants were actively engaged in all activities and discussions, and evaluations were extremely positive across the four days. From the evaluations participants found the following topics useful and memorable: political financing, campaigning, message development, candidate assessment, and the inclusion of women candidates, this helped them to identify the gaps, areas for improvement, and challenges towards the inclusion of women candidates.

The workshop concluded on the last day, closed by RAC chair Saeed Mohamed Elmi Siraadle and NIMD Programs Manager Dr Gaas appreciating the funding partners, resource persons and participants for contributing towards the success of the course.