By Rashid Garuf

I keep asking myself when Somaliland politicians will make a dump mistake that might damage the clean reputation of Somaliland . I don’t have to ask that question any more, they just did on November 29, 2005 and UDUB is responsible for this mess.

The Somaliland people did their civic duty and elected 82 new members of the parliament. The individuals who have the right to hold the leadership position are those members who get the support of 42 members. It does not matter what umbrella these 42 members come under. In this case, the two opposition parties were smart enough to form an agreement that allowed their members to gather the support of 46 members and clearly that is more than they needed to capture the leadership of the parliament.

The right thing to do for UDUB was to let the process continue and allow the opposition parties to elect the new leadership of the parliament. The government and UDUB party did not gracefully accept defeat and rather acted childish by pulling a cheap trick via parliamentary procedure to delay the process for few days. The opposition parties took the matter into their own hands and have opened new session of the parliament and elected new leaders. It is reasonable to ask what difference few days will make both for UDUB and opposition parties? Clearly this move will help UDUB hold on to power for few more days and that is unfair to the opposition, and it is plain wrong. However, considering that the opposition has clear majority support what is the harm of the delay?

The opposition parties will have the same 47 members who will give their votes to support opposition candidate next time the parliament convenes. Be it may be Saturday or any other day in the future. UDUB’s parliamentary move to close the parliament for few days just does not make sense and will accomplish nothing other than to create animosity between the new members of the parliament. Some would make the argument that UDUB will get another opportunity to try to influence the opposition members, but that is not reasonable argument, because UDUB had few weeks since the day the Supreme Court certified the results of the election and it failed to influence the opposition members to change their vote, except one member from UCID. No one believes UDUB’s desperate move to hold on to power for four more days has any chance of success rather it has created unnecessary crisis in the country and ended the celebration for the successful 2005 parliamentary elections – not to mention the negative international media coverage.

The opposition parties have made smart decision in signing strategic agreement that will allow them to capture the leadership positions of the parliament. However, I must say that the opposition parties showed lack of confidence in their members by reacting hastily and taking the matters into their own hands as a reaction to UDUB’s stunt. Unfortunately this will create undesirable precedent and you can be assured that we’ll see repeat of this move in the future. I’m very sympathetic to the opposition position on this issue, because UDUB is dragging its feet to turn power of the house over to the opposition.

Unfortunately, I believe the new hostility between UDUB and opposition members means there will be very little chance, if any, of cooperation between them in the months to come. Without such cooperation between the executive branch and the new parliament, the new leadership will NOT be able to solve the problems and challenges that are facing the country. It will be tremendous lost of opportunity if the parties spend their energy on playing politics in the next few years until 2008 presidential elections. However, it is fair to assume that there will be a political deadlock between these two branches of government until next elections. If you are asking which one; here is the schedule of the national election commission: Guurti elections in 2006, local government elections in 2007, and presidential elections in 2008.

The Somaliland people deserve better than a new parliament that focuses on how best to maximize the power on its party members; the people have done their civic duty and elected new members of the parliament and they expect from their elected officials to address their problems. The parliament should get down to the business of the people and work hard to solve the problems of the people. That means UDUB must accept the reality that it does not have the votes to appoint the leadership of the parliament and must allow the opposition to resume leadership of the house. It also means the opposition members must show maturity and patience to spare the country from any more political crisis and show the political maturity required to motivate UDUB to cooperate with the legislative agenda of the opposition parties.

rashidnur@hotmail.com

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