Somaliland House of Elders chairman Suleiman Adan (center) and Haji Abdi Warabe (left) and Deputy Chairman Sheekh Ahmed Nouh Furre (right) announce at their press conference held on Friday 4pm 2 Dec. that they are to mediate dispute over last Tuesday's parliamentary crisis over election of opposition MP as House Speaker.

Hargeysa, Somaliland, Dec 3, 2005 (SL Times) – Somaliland's opposition alliance comprising the two political parties of KULMIYE (Solidarity) and UCID (Justice and Welfare) and the UDUB ruling party have accepted an offer from the Guurti (House of Elders) to mediate in resolving the dispute arising from the incumbent party's complaint that last Tuesday's election of the newly-elected House of Representatives' Speaker and his two deputes was conducted in violation of parliamentary rules of procedures.

The 82-seat House voted Abdirahman Mohamed Abdillahi (Erro) as its Speaker with Abdul Aziz Mohamed Samale and Basha Mohamed Farah as his first deputy and second deputy speaker respectively. All the 3 parliamentarians are members of the opposition. Erro is from UCID while Samale and Farah are members of KULMIYE.

In the September 29 parliamentary elections, the two parties had won between them 49 seats against 33 for UDUB.

Constitutionally, the new House is required to elect its Speaker and his two deputies in the opening session which is to be chaired by the eldest person among the parliament members present.

In compliance with this provision, UDUB's MP Ibrahim Mohamed Hassan (Dhaadheere), 72, had initially assumed the chairing of the first session. However, instead of proceeding with the business of calling the House to order for the election of the Speaker of the House and the 2 deputy speakers, Mr. Dhaadheere started delivering his own speech to the House. And no sooner he finished his speech at around 11:45 than he announced the session closed. He said as the mid-day praying time was to close, the session had to be adjourned until next Saturday [Today].

Though Dhaadheere's announcement had prompted UDUB MPs to rush themselves out of the meeting, however it drew an angry shouts from 47 MPs of the opposition who wanted him to supervise the election of permanent House Speaker and two deputies.

Though mandated by the constitution to fix a date for the opening session of the new House within 30 days after the endorsement of the election results by the Supreme court, however president Rayale's decision setting November 29 as the date for the first session was hardly seen by the opposition as a mere coincidence.

Somaliland House of Elders holding press conference over tuesday's parliamentary crisis.

Since the results of the election were certified by the high court by November 1, 2005 , oppositions circles were quoted as saying that president Rayale was using illicit methods for recruiting support among the UCID-KULMIYE parliamentary block. The defection of one MP from KULMIYE and UCID each in mid November had only fuelled the opposition's suspicions about the government's intentions.

Therefore when Mr. Dhaadheere tried on last Tuesday to adjourn the election of the parliament Speaker and his 2 deputies to next Saturday, opposition members refused to comply saying that it was illegal to stop the meeting. Instead the 47 MPs from the opposition continued with the meeting. They sorted out the 5 eldest members present and then chose the most eldest among them, Mohamed Omer Jiir, as the new chair of the session.

At this point armed policemen stormed the meetings hall ordering the remaining MPs and the reporters covering the event to leave. At one time scuffles broke out when policemen tried to confiscate cameras and tape-recorders from local journalists as the Guurti's secretary Abdillahi Dheere started dismantling the chamber's addressing system.

However the opposition MPs elected UCID's Abdirahman M Abdillahi "Erro" as Speaker and KULMIYE's duo, Abdul Aziz Samale and Basha M. Farah as first and second deputy speakers respectively.

UDUB declared that the election was illegal. On Wednesday, the incumbent party filed a suit with the constitutional court seeking a legal action nullifying Tuesday's election and ruling that Mr. Dhaadheere was legally the temporary chairman of the new parliament.

The court ordered cancellation of the parliament's session originally scheduled separately by both the elected Speaker, Erro and Mr. Dhaadheere, to take place this Saturday. The injunction specified that no meeting of the House should be held on Saturday or until such a time before the dispute has been resolved.

However at a late afternoon press conference yesterday, Somaliland 's House of Elders announced that members of the new parliament from both the opposition and UDUB had accepted its initiative to help resolve the dispute amicably through mediation.

Meanwhile, the Guurti's chairman Suleiman Adam Mohamud had confirmed that the UDUB party has withdrawn its petition from court.

The way UDUB and some senior members of government including president Rayale has drawn strong disapproval from the public.

Though Somaliland has developed a constructive conflict culture that manages political conflict through the application of its traditional Guurti system, however many Somalilanders were dismayed by the government's inability to come to terms with the fact that an opposition majority was to take over the House of Representatives for the first time in over a decade.

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