Somaliland.Org

Read carefully and follow the instructions. The game is over. Be gracious, don’t over stay and develop an Exit Strategy. At best, negotiate to remain as an interim care-taker and at worst as a member of a governing coalition.- Ali Gulaid

HARGEISA (Somaliland.Org) Supporters and members of the public gathered at the headquarters of KULMIYE party today following yesterday’s announcement by the party inviting the public to come and listen the party’s views on current political crisis in Somaliland.

Reports are coming out that the remaining National Election Commission members, all UDUB appointed, have written to the Chairman of the Parliament Abdirahman M. Abdillahi, who has been mediating between the political parties regarding the election timetables.

The mad mullah has just landed. Not him exactly but his partner. Mad mullah – a term the British Empire gave to a Somali man who went out alone to fight its imperialism is used for religious zealots. He did not kill only whites but Somalis who looked suspicious.

This statement is damaging to Somaliland’s international position and can negatively affect the search for recognition. One could actually argue that the Minister and the President, who has supported his Minister’s statement in a speech at the Parliament, have both shamefully failed to serve Somaliland’s national and long-term interest in favour of their personal short-term political aims.

I was in Hargeisa last year when Mujahid Yusuf Gabobe was arrested for the articles Haatuf published. Abshir Hassan courageously confirmed on television everything that was quoted in that article and much more. Rhoda Rageh

In a bold move that made me think that probably he has come to his senses and was ready to leave office, Riyale called for a meeting of the two Houses and told them first that: a) they were not allowed to ask him questions and when they did b) insulted them c) then showed his most irresponsible and foolish self by saying that he is not going to leave office on May 15. Few things seem abnormal in this kind of attitude:

There is a growing chorus of voices calling for Dahir Rayale who no longer commands the support and trust of the Somaliland public to step down by the end of his presidential mandate, which is due to expire officially on 15th May 2008 at 00.00 hrs (midnight) local time. But president Rayale whose anti-democracy tendencies and inclination towards dictatorship was becoming increasingly clear by the day is desperately vowing to cling on to power come what may.

This is how my friend who is now there put it when I asked him about the events at home. He must have been feeling utterly frustrated and angry at the moment I asked him the question. Who wouldn’t be under the circumstances? I have the feeling my question must have offered him an alternative to shouting into the toilet. I lent an ear he can trust. Even to me, my friend’s message hit a spot.

But the 2 officials were actually angered by the paper’s reference to some of their shady past when both of them served under Siyad Barre’s brutal regime. It was widely believed during the SNM’s resistance against Siyad Barre in the 1980s that Saeed Sulub was involved in the assassination of Sultan Hassan Bulbul in 1985.

Guled Ismail

Nearly all African societies suffer from not only ineffective governments but Presidents who refuse to leave office who throw their countries into civil war and almost always destroy their societies. Somaliland is not Zimbabwe and the two societies are profoundly different in their ethnic composition.

Regardless of what President Rayale’s decrees say about these new districts and regions, the Electoral Commission cannot take note of them at all until the 2002 Law is amended. We are clearly storing trouble for us, though, because the House of Representatives’ current relatively large “constituencies” under our proportional representation system is still based on the six existing regions (Article 12 of the 2005 Election Law).

As a member of the Liberal in Sweden, I’m glad to be here today at this fantastic conference of KULMIYE. It’s always pleasant to be among friends who share the same values as you. No matter if you are in Stockholm or Hargeisa.

I am not a member of your party, but like all Somalilanders I am praying for your success. And I pray for our nation to be blessed with strong leaders and stronger political parties that can keep us free from the darkness of one party state and ugliness and primitiveness of a Personality Cult. - Dr. Abdishakur Jowhar

The Chairman of Kulmiy Mr. Ahmed Mohamed Mohamoud (Silanyo) addressed many issues affecting Somaliland in his opening speech

Riyaleh shut himself away from the Somaliland society for thirty days claiming to be doing the business of the people then appeared like a clown in a circus calling every little hut in Somaliland a district and every shabby village a region. — Rhoda A. Rageh

The people of Somaliland elected President Dahir Rayale on April 15, 2003 to a 5 year term; which will end on April 14, 2008. The National Election Commission (NEC), and the three national Political parties (Udub, Kulmiye, Ucid) reached an agreement to postpone the presidential election to August 31, 2008, which will effectively extend the President’s term by three months and 15 days. — Mahdi Gabose, Rashid Garuf

Rayale’s visit to the U.A.E is still shrouded in mystery. The president was away for 6 days and remains tight-lipped about what he was doing in Abu Dhabi all that long.

J. Peter Pham, Ph.D.
A great deal has transpired in the little over two months since I last raised the question of Somaliland in this column, repeating a call I made two years earlier: “Since the disintegration of the Siyad Barre’s oppressive Somali regime into Hobbesian anarchy and warlordism, the international community has staunchly defended the …

According to the recent legislation passed by the parliament; Somaliland Citizens are required to be registered in order to be eligible to vote in the elections; beginning on July 2008 local elections and the August 2008 Presidential elections. This means every man; woman and young person in cities, small towns or in the …

London(The Rep) Last week, the Imperial College organised a Conflict Study week where academics and regional experts debated on some of the world conflicts including the Middle East, Kashmir and the Horn of Africa. Dr Mohamed A Omar of IOE, University of London, spoke at the conference and delivered an analysis of the Horn of …

Mohamed A. Suleiman

The Somaliland Government has recently sent to the House of Representatives a new Bill on press and publications. The provisions of this bill (based almost entirely on the Yemen Law No: 25 of 1990 on the Press & Publications) run contrary to international norms relating to freedom of expression and the independence of the press and are not in line with the Somaliland constitution.

Dr. Mohamed A Omar For the first time, since it withdrew from the voluntary union with Somalia in 1991, Somaliland is at the centre of a debate by the Bush administration over a possible recognition of its statehood. America appears to be throwing its weight behind Somaliland and in the process it is showing that its worldview is changing