To ask Her Majesty's Government what were the findings and recommendations of the European Union Democratisation Steering Committee mission which visited Somaliland in March 2009. [HL3153]

A Democratisation Steering Committee Mission consisting of representatives from the European Commission and the Government of Sweden held meetings with the three political parties and the National Electoral Commission in February 2009.

The Democratisation Steering Committee comprises all the donors to the Somaliland election process namely, the United Kingdom, the European Commission and the Governments of Denmark, Norway, Sweden and the USA.

During this visit, the mission passed on messages expressing disappointment in the way that the voter registration exercise had been conducted and encouraged the political parties and National Electoral Commission to come to a political consensus on agreeing the way forward on finalising the voter list, the distribution of polling stations and the election calendar. Talks are still ongoing between the political parties and the National Electoral Commission to agree a consensual way forward on these issues.

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they or the European Union are offering Somaliland technical or financial help to improve the reliability of their electoral register in time for the elections. [HL3154]

The Department for International Development (DfID) is providing financial and technical assistance to the Somaliland election process together with the European Commission and other donors.

This assistance is channelled through the international non-governmental organisation Interpeace. It is enabling the National Electoral Commission to clean up and finalise the voter registration list by eliminating duplicate and incomplete records through the use of both fingerprint and facial recognition technology.