Somaliland: The strongest democracy in East Africa
By: Dr Hussein M. Nur
Consultant (International Development)
Elections are not new to Somaliland. The most recent one
was the presidential poll that h as been conducted
peacefully on 13 November 2107. This election was
interesting as it kin dled an ecstatic special
attentiveness by the outside world due mainly to the
political mat urity and the dynamics of democratic
processes. The international press and media covere d the
proceedings extensively to the extent the political
pundits described Somaliland as th e strongest democracy
in Africa in general and in East Africa or the Horn
region in particul ar. The election demonstrated strong
commitment, responsibility and political maturity of the
institutions, national political parties and the people
of Somaliland. The election has pr oven mellowness of a
vigorous democratic governance at work.
Since its withdrawal from union with Somalia in 1991,
Somaliland has made significant advances in securing
stability and security and Somaliland and it has been
commonly signposted as an ‘oasis of peace’ in a region
beleaguered by conflicts and political instability.
History of elections in Somaliland
Somaliland has a good track record of conducting
peaceful credible elections and power tr ansfers. On
general elections form a core part of the common
understanding and practice of democracy. In more than
two decades of building democracy, elections have become
the most critical action of conferring legitimacy to its
government administrations in Somalilan d In Somaliland
democratic processes are never compromised and the
credibility and legiti misation of electoral practices
form the ritual methods and basis of electoral
integrity.
Somaliland has declared its sovereignty, independence
and voluntarily withdrew from union with Somalia during
the grand peace conference at Buroa in 1991 when
Abdirahman Ahmed Ali (Tuur) and Hassan Essa Jama were
elected as interim president and vice president
resp ectively for a term of two years. At the end of
President Ali’s term, Mohamed Ibrahim Egal was elected
as the second president at the Borama peace and
reconciliation conference in 1993 in a peaceful transfer
of power process.
Egal’s administration oversaw the establishment of a
model government and the kick start of post-war
rehabilitation, reconstruction and development of the
country. The SNM libera tion front was officially
disbanded as a political movement followed by a
successful progra mme of demobilisation of the SNM
forces. In 1997 an indirect non-partisan presidential
elec tion contested between Egal (the incumbent
president), Suleiman Adan (a veteran politici an) and
Mohamed Hashi Elmi (a senior SNM leader/politician) was
held in which Egal was re-elected as president by a
majority (over 70%).
During Egal’s term and as political maturity in
Somaliland progressed and developed, a sig nificant
progress has been made in democratisation starting with
a constitutional referen dum that was held in 2001 as a
plebiscite for revoking sovereignty from union with
Somalia. 97% of the public voted for. From 2003 onwards
impressive list of polls have been record ed.
Nevertheless, until 2002 no political associations or
national parties existed. The first political party, UDUB (Union of National Democratic Coalition Party) was
first formed by the president Egal who died on 3rd May
2002. Vice president, Dahir Rayale Kahin, took over the
presidency to complete the term (Ahmed Yusuf Yasin was
chosen as vice president).
President Rayale immediately
jumped onto the band wagon of pluralism and multi-party
sys tem. In accordance with the constitution only three
political parties are allowed to prevail in the country
at any one time but the constitution allows formation of
political association s to be registered to compete for
the top three national parties for a specific period.
Six political organisations (UDUB, UCID, ASAD, SAHAN,
KULMIYE and HORMOOD) were registered on 15 December 2002
to compete for the top three national parties and UDUB,
KULMIYE an d UCID became the first three that attracted
sufficient support.
In terms of presidential elections, the first direct
presidential election took place on 14 Ap ril 2003. Dahir
Rayale Kahin of UDUB party won the race. However, what
remarkably earns to mention is that Silanyo, the
opposition candidate, was defeated by the slimmest and
the narrowest majority (by 80 votes only) but he
conceded defeat, a phenomenon that has ne ver been
observed in the African continent which is an indicative
of how politically mature and committed Somaliland
people are to democratic pluralism.
A parliamentary election which was closely observed and
monitored by international obse rvers and contested by
the three existing national parties (UDUB, KULMIE and
UCID) candi dates took place on 25 September 2001 to
elect members of the Lower House of the parl iament
‘Golaha Wakiilada’. The Upper House or House of elders
‘Golaha Guurtida’ is un-ele cted.
To augment and consolidate the political maturity, a
second presidential election which was strongly
contested was held on 26 June 2010. Ahmed Mohamed
Mohamoud Silanyo of the opposition party, Kulmiye, won
the race by a majority (49.59%). Interestingly, however,
Rayale gracefully conceded defeat and officially handed
over the power to the newly elected president on 27 July
2010 in a peaceful fashion. This is rare experience in
Africa, made the world envy. So far in mainland Africa
only three states (Benin, Senegal and Zambia) had their
incumbent presidents stood down after being defeated in
elections) without violence or political disagreements.
As pluralistic democracy matured further and gathered
momentum, multi-party elections continued. In accordance
with the 2011 electoral law, new political associations
(UMMADD A, DALSAN, RAYS, WADANI and HAQSOOR) were
officially registered to compete with the existing three
political parties ((KULMIYE, UDUB and UCID) to choose
the three top national parties. KULMIYE, WADANI and UCID
succeeded to become the three national parties. On 28
November 2012 a local government election was held in
which a total of 2,308 candidates from the three parties
(including 140 women) contested for 379 seats. The
election was witnessed by 50-strong team of
international observers coordinated by Steve Kibble (Progressio
organisation) and Michael Wallis (Department planning
unit, UCL, University of London) together with
Somaliland Focus and the international community that
worked closely with the National Electoral Commission
(NEC) to observe and monitor the elections. The election
passed off largely in peace and Somaliland was
congratulated for the lively and enthusiastic elections.
Yet another successful presidential election, the third
presidential election and the sixth in a row since 2003,
has been held on 13 November 2017. This election has
been the most dramatic one. This election was different
from the previous ones in a number of ways. A new
technology (iris-recognition biometrics) was introduced
replacing the old fingerprint biometrics voter
registration system. That made Somaliland the most
technologically sophi sticated state in the African
continent and in the world, to use iris-recognition
technology. The technology was chosen because of its
reliability, flexibility, and standardization. It also
boosted the confidence and trust for its capacity to
protect fraud and repeat voting. The election was
preceded by a three-week campaign with a series of
well-orchestrated rallies taken in turns by the
contesting parties. The first ever televised
presidential debate in Africa was also held in which the
candidates engaged in a town hall-style debate as the
event was live–streamed from the capital, Hargeisa
whereas the media openly covered and allowed to
scrutinise the candidates’ policies and performances.
The election has been observed by a 60-strong team of
international observers from 27 countries together with
international partners (UK, Denmark, USA, Belgium,
Demark, Finl and, the EU, France, Germany, Holland,
Norway, Switzerland, and Sweden). On the day of
election, a high level delegation from the international
community and the international observers visited 350
polling stations in Hargeisa and witnessed the opening,
the voting, the closing and the tallying procedures at
stations. The Chief Observer and the chairman of the
international observers, Michael Wallis, praised and
congratulated Somaliland for the smooth conduct of the
voting and the peaceful manner in which the people
exercised their rights to vote. The NEC has also been
commended for their vital responsibility of managing and
coordinating a peaceful conduct of the election. Musa
Bihi Abdi and Abdirahman Abdil lahi Saylii, won with
majority (55.1%) as the president-elect and vice
president respectiv ely. The results have been
acknowledged and accepted by the opposition candidates.
Winds of change
Elections are means to ends. Through this election
Somaliland strongly affirmed and consoli dated a
consistent pattern in democratisation which fascinated
the outside world. It has taken a step further close to
de jure recognition. The Scandinavians particularly
Sweden, one of the first EU nations to recognise
Palestine and one which has also been toying with the
recognition of Western Sahara, have emerged with
enthusiasm in eying on Somaliland’s independence and
recognition in the near future. This election has acted
as a major step forward as it has exposed an
encouragingly positive signal to the rest of the world
and that it could bolster a strong case for
international recognition.
The political stance of Somaliland is in stark contrast
to those of most African countries and especially with
its neighbours. The 2016 presidential election in
Somalia has been blemished with controversies, fraught,
pervasive corruption, sales of votes, and reliance on
abundant external funding and support coupled with
instability and insecurity from Al-Shabab. Even the
one-person-one-vote principle envisaged in 2012 remotely
became a day-dream as voters were hand-picked employing
4.5 clan code system that undermines the recognised
principles of democracy. Somalia and South Sudan have
been described as failed states; North Sudan as a
dictatorship and Eritrea, Rwanda and Ethiopia as police
states; Isaias Afwerki, first president of Eritrea came
to power in 1993 (the same time as the second president
of Somaliland, Egal) is still in power today. In Uganda,
Yoweri Museveni is still on the saddle of the power
uninterruptedly since January 1986, while Zimbabwe’s
Robert Mugabe has been in power for about 30 years since
1987 as president until he has recently (2017) been
forced out of office under pressure. Even Kenya, once
the East African region’s most vibrant and competitive
democracy, clearly struggled in the last two elections
marred with violence, re-election and political
disagreements. In other African countries such as
Liberia, Cameroon, Chad, Gambia, Rwanda, Democratic
Republic of Congo, and Chad to mention some, elections
have been disrupted by flare-up of violence and even
with military interventions.
Therefore, Somaliland stands out of the pack of African
states. Somaliland’s performance in nation and peace
building has often been on shoestring. Somaliland
currently ranks high in terms of the indices of
democratic performance and could act as a model
inspiration for East Africa and wider Africa.
The winds of change for Somaliland’s political prospects
are blowing stronger. Two main political parties in
Sweden (the Christian Democrats (KD), a centre-right
party and the Swedish Democrats have instantly responded
with optimism to the news of elections in Somaliland.
The KD Party express eagerness in Somaliland’s
recognition and that should be done in in cooperation
with the other EU member States and that it is teaming
up in cooperation with another three national Parties
(Moderates, Conservative Democrat, and the Volks Party
or Liberal party) to bring about a motion to the
parliament whilst the Swedish Democrats Party has taken
the extra mile by voicing a radical approach in support
of Somaliland’s recognition as it meets all the
requirements that a government should have to be a
recognised as a country. Additionally, a Swedish
journal, ‘Varden Idag’ commented: “Somaliland’s
recognition would serve as a good example of what can
achieved when conflicts are resolved with dialogues
rather than violence”, a Swedish political activist,
Michael Torstensson, vehemently articulated that
Somaliland’s prowess in fighting terrorism and
establishing a functioning and the most peaceful state
in East Africa merits recognition while Professor Paul
Wrange (University of Stockholm) stresses that there are
no logic obstacles to Somaliland’s recognition and
independence.
UK as the strongest partner of Somaliland acknowledges
and supports Somaliland’s efforts in commitment to
democratic ideals. UK, a long standing friend of
Somaliland, has a major stake in the success of the
elections in Somaliland investing a significant
contribution to the planning, preparation and delivering
the biometric voter registration used in the 2017
election. Jeremy Carver, a British international lawyer
voiced that Somaliland satisfies all legal criteria for
its independent statehood and how it conducted success
of elections make it deserve to be recognised. Another
British politician, Zac Goldsmith (the Conservative
Party, East Midlands), has recently remarked in the
British parliament in tribute to the election: “With
recent events in Zimbabwe and total chaos in Kenya now,
will the Prime Minister join me in celebrating the
hugely successful elections this week in Somaliland.”
David Concar, another British politician and diplomat
(Ambassador for Somalia and Somaliland) unambiguously
pointed to the evidence of Somaliland’s impressive
records of democratisation and pluralism and
congratulated the people of Somaliland and the
president-elect, Musa Bihi Abdi on winning the contest.
James Carver (MEP and UKIP party) forcefully remarked on
the recognition of Somaliland in a debate at the EU
parliament at Brielle’s and indicated that there are
precedents [(the dissolution of the UAR between two
independent states between Egypt and Syria; the
dissolution of the union between Senegal and Gambia
(Senegambia)]. “Somaliland has taken the path of
democracy”, Edna Aden Ismail adds. Somaliland deserves
international recognition.
Somaliland has proven to be a symbol of peace, security
and stability in a region affected with political
turmoil. This year’s laudable successful election
conducted this year offers food for thought for the
African continent in general and for East Africa in
particular.
The challenges
Somaliland’s diplomatic isolation defies it from
international recognition and the newly-ele cted
president has no illusions about the complex challenges
facing Somaliland (Financial Ti mes, 28th November 2017).
The president-elect, Musa Bihi Abdi vows to serve all
Somalilan ders alike in justice and pledges to broaden
development, strengthen and consolidate pea ce, security,
stability and extend democratisation; improve the
economic headwinds and pillars of the economy, resources
and endowment; seek foreign direct investments; provi de
basic needs of the society (health care, education,
clean water, youth employment etc.). The centrality of
international recognition is high on the agenda. The new
president stres sed the importance to reform the
presently sterile talks and negotiations with Somalia
and the need for international neutral witnesses and
mediators from the international commun ity as well as
change the modalities of the negotiations.
I wish the best of luck for the new president and his
administration.
|