The current House of Representatives is fourth House of Representatives until Somaliland declaration, where the first House of Representatives was central committee of SNM, second house was selected in Borama in 1993, third house was selected in Hargeisa reconciliation conference on 1997. The fourth House of Representatives is current House which also is first House of Representatives elected through directly elected by secret ballot in a free general election.

House of Representatives was elected on 29^th September, 2005, after election race between 246 candidates from three political parties those are UDUB (Former ruling part), Kulmiye (Former opposition and currently ruling part) and UCID (Opposition part), where 82 winners MP are from those three parties two of them are females as follows:

• UDUB (Ruling party in that time) won seats 33 members
• Kulmiye (Current ruling party) won seats     28 members
• UCID (Opposition party) won seats             21 members

                                                            82 members

House of Representatives Seats

Somaliland Parliamentary Election 29 September 2005 the total number of parliamentary seats each party received from each region are:

No	Region	Ucid	Kulmiye	UDUB	Grand Total
1	Sahil	4	2	4	10
2	Awdal	3	3	7	13
3	Sanaag	2	5	5	12
4	Togdheer	4	6	5	15
5	Sool	2	4	6	12
6	Hargeisa	6	8	6	20
		21	28	33	82

The House Representatives is leads by chairing committee they elected among its members in the first session and consist of Speaker and two Deputies speakers. The House of Representatives consists of members who represent the public, and forms the first part of the country’s legislative, passing laws and approving and overseeing the general political situation and the direction of the country, have power to approve or reject all appointments of Ministers, Deputy Ministers or Heads of the organs of the state, have power to debate, comment on, refer back with reasons or approve the programme of the Government; have power to approve or amend government budgets and financial final accounts; House have power to ratify international agreements (treaties) such as political, economic and security agreements or those agreements which impose new financial burdens which have not been covered in the Budget, or which will involve the promulgation or amendment of legislation, have the power to summon the Government or its organs or agencies in order to question them about the fulfilment of their responsibilities.

In addition the House of Representatives have exclusive power for the financial matter such the imposition of taxes, duties and other schemes for raising revenue, the establishment of a Somaliland Income Fund or other Funds which are earmarked for specific issues, approval of printing of currency, and the issue of bonds, other certificates and securities and adoption exclusively the financial related laws.

The House shall hold every year three ordinary sessions which shall last twenty eight weeks in total. The sessions shall be separated by a period of no less than four weeks and no more than eight weeks. An extra-ordinary session of the House of Representatives may be held on request of the President of the Republic, convening by the Speaker of the House of Representatives or on request, in writing, of 1/3 (one third) of the members of the House.

The House of Representatives its own by-laws and the procedures of its working, sub- committees and determines legislation process, but the by-laws may not contradict the

Constitution, the by-laws specify all the procedures for appointing of sub-committees, its duration, and its other functions. The House also has a General Secretariat, presided over by a secretary general.

A member of the legislature represents the whole nation and guards the public interest. A member may not interfere with the work of the executive or the judicial branches. A member may not be subject to procedures of investigation, inspection or arrest, imprisonment, or punishment, except with the permission of the parliament except in the case his being caught in the act flagrance.

At least 11member of the House of Representatives or the government has the right to propose bills for laws, but financial laws that aim at increasing or abolishing an existing tax, or decrease or give exemption from part of it, or aim at allocating part of the state funds for a certain project may only be proposed by the government.

The House of Representatives has eight sub-committees those are:

• Standing and disciplinary sub-committee
• Economic, finance and commercial sub-committee
• Social affairs and religion sub-committee
• Environment, livestock, agriculture and natural resources sub-committee
• Internal affairs, security and defence sub-committee
• Foreign policy, International relation and national planning sub-committee
• Constitutional, judiciary, justice and Human rights sub-committee
• Care and protection of public properties sub-committee

Every sub-committee will contain at least seven members except standing sub-committee which contain 17 members. The house also may have ad-hoc committees which operate during their appointed tasks. The ad-hoc committees’ selection is mandate of the chairing Board.