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Continued from our previous issue]
A. POLITICAL ASSOCIATIONS
The 2001 constitution had legalised the formation of political associations, which would be eligible to compete for seats on local councils. But more was at stake than control of municipal governments: the three associations to obtain the highest percentage of the vote could then be registered as political parties and go forward to contest parliamentary and presidential elections.
Characteristically, Egal set the pace, forming UDUB in August 2001. Its symbol – the centre pole of the nomadic hut – was ironically appropriate: UDUB was identified from its inception as the party of government, counting many cabinet ministers and parliamentarians among its members. Egal was both the chairman of the party and its presidential candidate. UDUB’s identification with the Somaliland state was carefully calculated to suggest continuity and stability, but its relationship with government also enraged the opposition. In direct contravention of the political party law, UDUB activities were largely financed from state funds, and government officials at all levels were enlisted into working for the party.
Although UDUB became widely referred to as the ‘ruling party’, it had yet to earn that privilege.
UDUB was soon joined in the field by eight more political organisations. Three were subsequently disqualified for failing to meet the criteria established by law, leaving six to contest the local elections. For the most part these organizations represented sections of Somaliland’s urban political elite, and there was little to distinguish them from one another besides the personalities of their leaders and the degree to which they appealed to different clan constituencies. Kulmiye, the main challenger, was the brainchild of its chairman, Ahmed Mohamed Mohamud Silanyo, a veteran politician who had served two consecutive terms as SNM chairman.
Hormood had initially been formed by civic activists, and had acquired a reputation as a party of intellectuals, but its profile was drastically altered by the nomination of Omar Arteh Qalib as its chairman. Qalib, who had become closely identified with the Barre regime as Foreign Minister and had a reputation as an opponent of Somaliland’s independence, appealed to very few voters beyond his own Sa’ad Muse sub-clan.
Sahan, which began by calling itself the Somaliland Islamic Party38 attracted support mainly from within the clan of its chairman, the Habar Yunis. Although its use of the Qu’ran in its logo probably appealed to parts of the electorate, others perceived Sahan’s religious pretensions as a cynical political device.
UCID, the Party for Justice and Democracy (Ururka Cadaaladda iyo Dimoqraadiga) presented the most ambitious – if implausible – political program. Led by a civic engineer from Finland named Faysal Ali Waraabe, UCID dedicated itself to the establishment of a means-tested welfare system of the Scandinavian variety. The platform appeared to be most persuasive among members of Waraabe’s own ‘Iidagale clan and other groups in the Hargeysa area.
Asad, led by Suleyman Mohamud Aden ‘Gaal’, stood apart for its radically anti-Egal rhetoric and its initial refusal to register as a political party on the grounds that the entire electoral exercise was corrupt. Gaal, who had unsuccessfully challenged Egal for the Presidency at the 1997 Hargeisa Conference, had initially argued that no election could be free and fair as long as Egal held office, calling instead for another national conference in place of elections (apparently forgetting how effortlessly Egal had engineered his own reappointment to the presidency at a conference just a few years earlier). Following Egal’s death, however, Asad registered itself as a political party and became closely identified with the ‘Alan ‘As faction of the SNM that had contributed to the 1992 ouster of then-president Abdirahman Tuur.
To be continued...
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