The National Electoral Commission of Somaliland (NEC) launched on 14th October 2008 an electronic registration of voters of the upcoming presidential, municipal and parliamentarian elections in the next year.
As planned by the NEC, the V-registration will not get conducted across the six regions of Somaliland simultaneously, but each region at once and then the next region unless all the eligible voters are registered.
The coastal region of Sahel was the first, then Awdal, so on and so forth.
After a recruitment exam, I got the chance to be member of the V-registration staff. The V-registration staffs were organized by the NEC as 8-person teams and were not to operate in every region. My V-Registration team was ‘V-Reg # 143’ and was not operational in Sahel region, but was mobilized for Awdal region. In the meantime, we were busy on four-day training on the Electronic Registration Kits that were to be used for the Voter Registration.
Anyway, when the turn of Awdal region came, we (V-Reg team # 143) were given two Toyota Hilux Surf cars and were assigned to go to Registration Centre #142 (Carro Weyn—a village 3hrs drive to the north of Baki district, Awdal Region.
THE BEGINNING OF THE MISSION
Before 24th October 2008 (the day V-Registration was to get underway), each registration team was be standby in their respective registration centre. We are in Hargeisa. After several hours of organizing our team and collecting the E-registration kit, supplies box and an electricity generator, we had had the midday meal at Hadhwanaag restaurant in Hargeisa and rested there for two hours.
On 4:00pm o’clock, we headed to Borama—the capital city of Awdal region. We reached it on 6:00pm and slept for that night there in Borama having had our cars parked in the compound of the regional office of the National Electoral Commission. This time we had 24hrs left to get to the registration centre which was about 90kms away from Borama.
The next morning, I have accidentally noticed that I was carrying with our team a wrong Registration Kit (the kit for Laas-Khadar, Reg Centre 126 instead of Carro Weyn, Reg Centre # 142) and was my own fault because I had better check it on the spot of handover. This had caused me to worry a lot because I was aware of the wrong ID cards and Voter cards the erroneous change of the Registration Kits can cause.
Soon I had called and informed the NEC officers in Borama and as well the central office in Hargeisa. They had acknowledged that and attempted all they can to solve, but due to shortage of time and technical difficulties, the problem was not solved. The only solution became that we go to the registration centre, and they told me that IT specialists will come after us to solve the problem; unfortunately that did not materialize.
Anyway, we drove away from Borama to Baki at 9:00am where we had had the midday meal. The road that connects Borama and Baki is rough which goes through a long range of huge mountains unless the town of Baki is reached. As well, the road from Baki to Carro Weyn passes through a long ranges of mountains and also crosses four rivers and one flowing torrent known as ‘Durdurka Cad’.
In Baki we were joined two members of the Reg team # 143 who were village natives and nominated by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Then we passed to the registration centre #142. That day, we spent most of the daylight and part of the night on the cars and finally reached the destination at 8:20pm.
On Friday, 24th October 2008, it was the first day of V-registration program and all E-registration kits were to be activated and were programmed to be active only the six days of the registration. Since my registration kit was not the one for Carro Weyn, I as the team leader was unable to start registration. For this reason I had made contact with the NEC officer in Baki district by a radio we had in the registration centre for consultation and solution to the problem.
Fortunately, Laas-Khadar registration team were also carrying with them wrong Registration Kit—the kit for ‘Carro Weyn’. This means, they were carrying our Kit and we were carrying theirs. Therefore, the NEC top officer in Baki district contacted both of us and informed that we come back to Baki in order to collect our correct Registration Kits. We did that and it took us almost seven hours to collect our correct kit and get back to the registration centre # 142.
On Saturday, the second day of the registration, we have started the registration successfully and worked extra hours in the night in order to compensate the first day which we were not working and keep the right of the villagers as well as fulfill our promise to work six consecutive days. Anyway, things were going on smoothly for the scheduled six days of voter registration.
ABOUT ‘CARRO WEYN’Carro Weyn is a village which located the north west of Baki district in Awdal Region, Somaliland. I cannot guess the exact distance between Baki and Carro Weyn, but in terms of driving hours, it took us 3hrs 15mins to reach Carro Weyn from Baki.
A range of huge mountains surround the village from all sides. The people who live there are mostly animal herders although there are small number of rain farms. Most of the people depend on their animals for their daily life.
We lived there in Carro Weyn for six days—the six days the V-registration was under way. The villagers worked with us well during the registration days and we were welcomed warmly by the villagers as a whole and particularly by the village leader Sh. Cali who had slaughtered a he goat and made a memorable feast for us the first night. We appreciate that and many thanks to the villagers.
The registration came to an end successfully on 29 October 2008, and by this day afternoon, we headed back to Borama since all the eligible villagers were registered. Finally, on Thursday, 30th October 2008, we came back to Hargeisa, handed over all the registration equipment to the National Electoral Commission and then gone homes!!! The next mission is coming… (489—Jaleelo, Hargeisa).
The End
24—29 October 2008 
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