Issue 310

Lord Avebury (Nov: 2007)

London, December 29, 2007 (SL Times) – The British parliamentarian Lord Avebury has stressed that for the upcoming elections in Somaliland to be recognized as inclusive, the right to campaign and put up candidates should be extended to the QARAN Political Association.

In a letter he wrote on December 27, 2007 to Mr. Malloch-Brown, minister at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Lord Avebury has taken issue with the decision of the Somaliland government to ban QARAN’s three top leaders, who had been released from prison earlier this month, from politics.

QARAN chairman, Dr. Mohamed Abdi Gabose and his two deputies Mohamed Hashi Elmi and Jamal Aideed Ibrahim, were arrested by the police authorities on July 28 and sentenced on August 8, 2007 by a regional court to 3 years and nine months in prison.

The three politicians were also banned from politics for 5 years for founding the QARAN organization.

Somaliland president Dahir Rayale in an interview with the VOA’s Somali programme earlier this week, has reiterated that the 3 QARAN leaders will not be allowed to exercise their political rights including the participation in the next municipal and presidential elections.

In his letter to Mr. Malloch-Brown, Lord Avebury indicated his opposition to the funding of the Somaliland elections unless QARAN was allowed to participate in the process.

I attach an article by Mahdi A. Abdi of the East Africa Policy Institute on the questions that arise from this decree by the President, and an article from the Somaliland Times of December 22 on this subject.

I understand that the Somaliland Minister of Finance is in Nairobi, where he was expecting to finalize details of the EU’s funding of the elections, as well as other aid projects. Whilst any humanitarian aid should continue, it would be wrong for the EU to subsidize elections which can’t be free and fair, since important players are still to be excluded from participation. I do hope we shall use our influence in Brussels to ensure that aid for the elections is suspended until the right to campaign and put up candidates, who may include the three leaders who were imprisoned for 144 days, is extended to the Qaran Political Association” said Eric Avebury who is a member of the all party parliamentary committee on Somaliland.

Source: Somaliland Times