The parliamentary election had been consistently delayed since 2005.[8] In 2015, Somaliland was supposed to hold a joint presidential and parliamentary election; both were postponed following drought and political controversies.[2] Delays in voter registration, caused by droughts forcing pastoralists to migrate, caused a tentative date of March 2017 to be pushed back as well.[5] Negotiations between all three political parties and the National Electoral Commission (NEC) led to the scheduling of the 2017 presidential election, which proceeded as planned, and a parliamentary election in April 2019.[5] The election was delayed and rescheduled for August 2019, when it was also delayed.[3] On 12 July 2020, Somaliland's three national political parties reached an agreement to hold parliamentary and local elections by the end of the year.[9][10] After several weeks of negotiations with the NEC on the practicality of organizing elections in that time, a revised date of May 2021 was settled upon.[11][12]