HARGEISA, Somalia May 14 (Garowe Online) - After weeks of political wrangling, a key decision has been reached among major political parties in negotiations organized by the election commission in Somaliland, a separatist region in northern Somalia, an elections official said.

Mohamed Ismail Mohamed, chairman of the Somaliland Election Commission, issued a press communiqué Tuesday in the breakaway region's capital city of Hargeisa, saying that the three parties have signed a three-point deal.

According to the elections official, all three Somaliland political parities – UDUB, UCID and Kulmiye – have agreed to hold a second meeting; to immediately stop the exchange of inflammatory language through the local media; and for the media to uphold the tri-partite decision, which the election commission will monitor.

The opposition parties, Kulmiye and UCID, have threatened not to recognize the presidency of Mr. Dahir Riyale following May 15, when the Somaliland leader's five-year-term ends.

In April, Somaliland's upper house of parliament, the Guurti, voted to extend Riyale's term in office by another year and rescheduled the presidential elections to April 2009.

The political impasse was dealt a blow earlier this week when the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of parliament, resigned from his mediation role after Riyale and opposition party chiefs refused to meet.

The Somaliland regions, in northwestern Somalia, unilaterally declared independence in 1991 after warlords took control of Mogadishu.

The separatist republic has not been recognized internationally.

Source: Garowe Online