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Issue 62 March 29, 2003

Voting Progresses Well in Somaliland’s First Multi-Party Election

Monday April 14, 2003
Yusuf A. Gabobe

Hargeisa (SL Times): Voting has been in progress today in Somaliland’s multi-party presidential elections, the first of its kind since the country withdrew from a 30 year union with Somalia and proclaimed independence in 1991.

Hundreds of people including women and members of minority groups stood since dawn in long queues in front of polling stations awaiting to cast their votes.

The polling began at 6:00am and over one million voters were expected to cast their ballots. The three candidates contesting the country’s top job are Somaliland's incumbent president and UDUB party Chairman, Dahir Rayale Kahin, Ahmed Mohamed Silanyo, KULMIYE party boss and former leader of Somaliland resistance against dictator Siyad Barre’s rule, and Faysal Ali Warabe, a returnee from the Diaspora who recently founded the UCID opposition party.

With one hour to go before the polling came to an end at 6:00 P.M., voting has reportedly gone peaceful at polling stations throughout the country.

Voting didn’t take place in some parts of Sool region, including the provincial capital Las-Anod. In the Sanag region, five polling stations were not opened in time.

According to the National Commission Electoral Chairman Ahmed Haji Ali, plans for holding election at these localities have been canceled at the last minute due to delay in forwarding the electoral material intended for polling stations there.

Teams of international observers are in Somaliland to scrutinize the polling. The largest observer mission has come from South Africa, the current chairman of the African Union. The South African delegation consists of 12 people who represent various institutions in that country including the South Africa Electoral Institute.

A mission led by Swedish Liberal party parliamentarian Birgitte Ohlosson has also arrived. Accompanying her are Peter Schuckink Kool and Hanad Mohamed Abdi, also from the Swedish Liberal party (Folk Partiet). Other delegates include a Canadian Parliamentarian, diplomats from the UK and USA as well as representatives of organizations in Ethiopia, Norway, Holland and a number of other countries. The process is also being observed by experts from the EU.

Local observers have predicted a hot contest between incumbent President Rayale and KULMIYE candidate Silanyo. Though being a sitting President may work for Mr. Rayale’s favor, however the election is expected to be a close race between him and his major opponent, Mr. Silanyo.

Rayale and his running mate Ahmed Yusuf Yasin were predicted to carry the votes in the two regions of Awdal and Sahil, their respective birth places while Sillanyo was expected to emerge as top winner in his hometown Buroa, Togdheer.

There were also indications that people who have stayed undecided until the last minute might have increasingly voted for UCID’s Faysal Ali Warabe.

Feature

Somalia And Survival In The Shadow Of The Global Economy (Part 5)

Special Guest Writer for the Somaliland Times, Prof. William Reno, Northwestern University

[Continued from the previous issue]

"Barre took ideological cues and foreigner’s cash where he could find it, combining Islamic poetry with the centralizing vision of Lenin, the cult of personality of North Korea’s Kim Il-Sung and advice from Western creditors and donors who in fact remained his primary financial supporters even during his alignment with the Soviet Union."