Mogadishu (HOL) — Somalia’s Independent National Electoral and Boundaries Commission said Saturday that voter registration for the country’s long-promised one-person, one-vote elections will resume on Sept. 9.

Commission Chairman Abdikarin Ahmed Hassan told reporters the registration period will run until Sept. 30, allowing newly registered political organizations to recruit supporters.

He urged other groups that have met legal requirements to register, saying the commission’s offices “are open at any time.”

Earlier Saturday, the Commission registered 14 political parties, including those led by former parliamentary speakers Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden and Mohamed Mursal Sheikh Abdirahman, marking a significant step in Somalia’s transition away from the clan-based power-sharing model.

Somalia’s federal government and a faction of the opposition recently signed a political agreement aimed at reshaping the electoral process. Under the deal, members of parliament will be directly elected through universal suffrage and will in turn choose the president — a hybrid arrangement that combines Somalia’s parliamentary tradition with direct voting.

The resumption of voter registration comes amid heightened public debate over electoral reforms in Somalia, where decades of conflict and political instability have delayed efforts to establish a stable democratic system.