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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
SOMALIA: Feature - Continuity or change in Somaliland?
HARGEYSA, 24 March 2003 (IRIN) - Somaliland President Dahir Riyale Kahin faces a strong opposition challenge in the self-declared republic's first multiparty presidential elections on 14 April. His challengers are Ahmed Muhammad "Silaanyo" of the Kulmiye party and Faisal Ali "Warabe" of the Justice and Welfare party (UCID).
The government believes Kahin will win on merit. But the opposition fears the poll may not be fair, and there is some concern that logistics may not be ready in time for polling.
Information Minister Abdillahi Duale stressed that local elections in December had gone smoothly. "Now that we are going ahead with the presidential elections, everything is in place," he told IRIN. "The electoral process has been tested. The government has already passed the budget for the Electoral Commission."
The Electoral Commission was set up in December 2001, before the local elections. It has seven members, of whom three are selected by the government, two by the House of Elders and two by opposition parties.
Duale also invited the international community to send observers.
"Our main objective today is to make sure that the democratisation process is in place, that elections are held in a fair manner," he said. "And I would like on behalf of the government and on behalf of the nation to invite international observers to come, as they did for the local government elections and the constitutional referendum."
OPPOSITION UNSURE OF FAIR POLL
But leading opposition candidate Ahmed Muhammad Silaanyo says he is not sure the elections will be fair. "That's what we hope, but from the experience we had in the last local elections, it is most unlikely," he said. "Because the government is using all its powers and financial resources, working obviously and without shame for UDUB [Somali for pillar] so-called government party."
Silaanyo stressed that the current government had not been elected by the people, and that UDUB was the creation of former president Muhammad Ibrahim Egal, who died in May last year. Riyale, who was Egal's vice-president, took over from him under the terms of a newly adopted constitution.
Fawziya Yussuf Haji Adam had been planning to run as the only independent candidate in the upcoming presidential polls, but accuses the government of having influenced a last-minute Supreme Court ruling that barred her from standing.
"UDUB, the government party, published the decision before even the Supreme Court wrote to the [electoral] commission," she told IRIN. "Their spokesman wrote an article in the national newspaper saying that no independent candidate should be allowed to run. By then I could say that almost 60 percent of the voters were on my side."
Fawziya said the Supreme Court decision came so late that it left her no time to take further action, and she was forced to withdraw, although she believes there is nothing in the constitution to bar independent candidates.
"Certainly it is not a level playing field," says Dr Hussein Bulhan of the Academy for Peace and Development, a civil society organisation based in Hargeysa. "There are some advantages that anybody associated with the government has. But I think we have to begin somewhere. It is a question of whether we have a democratisation process to start with or not, and in my view it's important that we get started."
Somaliland, a former British protectorate, declared independence from the rest of Somalia in 1991 after the collapse of the Siad Barre regime, but has not been internationally recognised. In the last decade it has moved away from conflict, while the rest of Somalia has been locked in civil strife.
CONTINUITY OR CHANGE?
Information Minister Duale says current President Riyale will ensure continuity of peace and stability for Somaliland, as well as continuing the quest for international recognition.
But opposition candidate Silaanyo accuses the government of mismanaging the economy. He says he would clean up corruption and establish a "lean government to deliver the goods".
Silaanyo also told IRIN he would work harder for international recognition. "We need to make more friends," he said. "We will put much more effort towards publicising our cause, and put our case to the international community much more effectively."
Silaanyo, who was a senior minister in Siad Barre's government before he quit in the 1980s, joined the armed opposition Somali National Movement (SNM) and eventually became its leader. From 1991, when Somaliland declared its independence, he held various senior ministerial posts until 2001 when he resigned from the government of the late president Egal. Observers rate him
as a leading contender in this election.
But presidential candidate Faisal Ali Warabe says both Riyale and Silaanyo are part of the old guard of politicians who are at the root of Somaliland's problems. He says he stands for a real change.
"We would like to make a massive shake-up," Warabe told IRIN. "This country needs a system, it never had a system. We want to modernise our parties, institutionalise our parties, as they are not institutionalised yet. We want to make a modern state, based on law and order."
Warabe is an engineer who served in the ministry of public works of Somalia. He has been a chief engineer of Mogadishu and president of a private construction company.
Warabe told IRIN his priorities would include gender equality, the environment, and building a healthy economy. He said his government would spend 20 percent of its budget on education and 20 percent on health. It would also implement a five-year plan for rebuilding Somaliland's roads, he said.
Themes: (IRIN) Governance
[ENDS]
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