By Suhail Madar

Dear Voter

No doubt, your vote holds greater value and indeed will have a significant impact to the future of Somaliland. Regardless of which party you intend to vote for, as Somaliland is in its infancy stage, the number of times you vote determines how Somaliland will be in the future. A Somali saying says “Alif kaa qaloocday albaqruu ku dhibaa”. I will interpret two things from this saying as follows:

1. Damages caused by voting illegally will not only occur in the later future but its impact can be seen from the very moments of announcing the winner party. Your double, triple and so on votes will definitely put Somaliland`s stability and existence in question. It`s hard earned good reputation will be nothing but a history. If you are interpreting these words in the wider view and seeing it not being your business, remember that your existence and stability of your loved ones like your children, parents, family members and the other 3.5 million of Somalilanders will also be in dilemma. We see as smart and high IQ person when someone violates, cheats and break rules but frankly speaking it is the other way round. Whether you are a business man, civil servant, student or unemployed, regardless of which party you support, a safe Somaliland is no doubt your number one priority.

If National Electoral Commission did everything but could not successfully achieve to produce a voter list which is free from duplicates. Why our common sense cannot guide us and stop us from creating chaos and putting our nation to anarchy. We don’t need to be controlled by machines for the sake our stability and good governance. We don’t need to be a rocket scientist to know this. If we cannot do this, than we are nothing but just another lawless Somalia. Therefore, Somaliland`s future is in our little voting cards and voting once is the only way to avoid this. In order to have free and fair elections I advice the following:

Ø If you previously registered more than once, take only one card this time please.

Ø Campaign against parties encouraging voting card collections please

Ø Advice your family members and friends to save Somaliland by taking only one card please

2. Voting illegally for the party you support in order to bring it to the winning level is nothing but paving the way for incompetency, corruption and lack of accountability. The level of desire of wishing your party to continue ruling this country or replacing the current one does not really matter to us, but what counts is the fairness of election and accuracy of the result. And there is no reason, whatsoever, to abuse the system for the sake of better change. And to my understanding change can only come with freely and fairly elected government.

Dear Party,

It is too late to criticize you for not taking it as your responsibility to guide your supporters in registering once but instead campaigned for, invested and encouraged your supporters to register again and again which resulted this mess. What adds an insult to the injury is how blindly you signed the code of conduct before you find out what has been done with the fraud voter list that delayed election for months. If you’re so excited to run for election and your objective is just to win power, than the government you will run is nothing but the mess we see today in voter registration. That measures the level of your accountability, commitment and governance. We don`t need to be experts to see what you have done as a ruling party or believe your party`s strategic plan as an opposition which is nothing but few lines on a paper.

However, there are still hopes and chances to correct the left-overs and step on the right path for free and fair election. During these 7 days of re-issuing voter cards, parties can seriously stress on their supporters who were registered more than once to take only one card from the Commission Centers.

Lastly but not least, let us work together in strengthening and increasing our level of involvement and participation in transparency and good governance. Let us take the initiatives to make Qabiil and corruption a history.

By Suhail Madar

Hargeysa, Somaliland

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