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Somaliland’s transition from a method of governance built on the Clan system to one based on full-fledged multi-party democracy hasn’t been easy. Within a period of only two years and a half, Somalilanders have gone through the dual process of building up from scratch the necessary political and electoral institutions required for implementation of this transition, while racing against time so as to be able to meet the deadlines of two elections. The most critical benchmarks for progress made in the process, of course, were the country’s first municipal elections by December 2002 and presidential polling by April 14, 2003. Though suffering from scarcity in so many fields including electoral experience, skills and resources, and recalling the tight schedules for carrying out these two tasks, yet Somaliland was able to overcome both challenges. For sure, the two election exercises were not without flaws and mistakes. But it is also true that the abuses committed during the polling day were too limited in both scope and magnitude to undermine the credibility of the election.
An important feature of both the municipal and presidential elections held, was that people were able to vote peacefully, freely and transparently. However in both instances, the weakest point of the election exercise was encountered when it came to counting and tabulation. And due to the unfortunate failure of the National Electoral Commission to address this problem right after the municipal elections had been held, a post-election dispute has emerged. The NEC declared on April 19 that UDUB party candidate and incumbent president Dahir Rayale Kahin won last week’s presidential election by a margin of 80 votes more than his rival, Ahmed Sillanyo’s KULMIYE party. KULMIYE is claiming that after finding simple calculation errors in the NEC’s own figures, its candidate was actually ahead of UDUB by 76 votes. Understandably, KULMIYE has not only rejected the NEC results but has also decided to contest the outcome in the Supreme Court. UDUB has also vowed to make its own appeal to the court.
Though disappointed and saddened by this controversy, Somalilanders, as a people who cherish peace and democracy, have been relieved that the two parties to the dispute were resorting to the supreme court for a solution. Somaliland voters want to know who actually won the April 14 presidential poll, and that is why they will be looking forward to the court’s decision on this post-election dispute with the keenest interest, ever.
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