“There’s our excuse… we’ll blame everything on the round-headed kid!”
― Charles M. Schulz,.
Waddani party has aired numerous unfounded allegations against Somaliland election stakeholders in the past three weeks to hide their dwindling electoral base and to find a scapegoat for their expected election failure.
Waddani’s resort to proliferate tenuous misinformation against Somaliland election stakeholders is due to the following factors.
- Somaliland citizens in the eastern and western regions shifted their support in mass to Kulmiye Presidential candidate. In the last two months, the Presidential candidate of Kulmiye Party Muse Bihi Abdi toured the country from the east to the west, receiving thousands of extra supporters, who were previously Waddani party supporters or undecided voters. This has resulted in the disheartenment of Waddani politburo.
- Waddani party’s hopelessness or despondency in getting enough support across Somaliland voter base. Waddani party is calling for change, however, this became very hard for Somaliland citizens to absorb since it is paradoxical. The great paradox is the same ministries who were in the driving seat in Kulmiye government for the last six years are now in the Waddani’s driving seat calling for change, what kind of change? aren’t you the same people?. Their candidate also was the leader of the house of representatives for the last 13 years, therefore it will not make sense to seek the presidency of the Republic, since he has abjectly failed on the leadership of the legislative branch which is the most crucial branches of the government (The legislative, The Judiciary, and The executive).Therefore, Waddani party was leading Somaliland government’s legislative and executive branches of government; thus if there is any need of change, there is a need of changing the wrongs they have done in the executive and legislative branches of the government. Their rhetoric and call for change is an insult to the nation and its intellectuals.
- Chronic leadership crisis on top of the Waddani party hierarchy, after the party founders and the group led by Hersi Ali, the former minister of the presidency, could not see in the same lenses the policy direction of the party in the country and in the Diaspora communities. One of the issues which have further widened the chasm between those groups within the party took place, when the party leader, Hersi Ali nominated overseas party representatives in Europe and North America without consulting Mr. Fadal,the party’s shadow secretary for foreign affairs and the same time one of the founding members of the party. Mr. Fadal is still on the brink of resignation. The Damuljadid sect led by Hersi Ali overtook the party’s founding members, which has resulted in the resignations of the party first deputy chairman, the third deputy chairman, various MPs and shadow party secretaries. Similarly, as reliable sources indicate, the other mass resignations are in the pipeline, which is expected to be the resignations of close to 42 senior Waddani party officers.
- Waddani party is comparing the incomparable, for example, its candidate compared Somaliland elections with the Kenyan elections. However the two elections are in different circumstances, for example, the of a number of registered voters in Kenya is 19,743,716, while the number of registered voters in Somaliland is 873,331, which is 4.4% of the number of voters registered to vote in Kenya. On the other hand in Kenya five elections are taking place at the same time; such as the Presidential election, Senate, National assembly, County governors, and local councils, while here in Somaliland only the Presidential election is taking place. On the same footing, in Kenya, the incumbent is seeking re-election, while here in Somaliland the incumbent president is not seeking re-election.
- Thus, Waddani party is looking for a scapegoat for his expected poll failure in November 2017. For the international community, they should not take at face value Waddani party claims but should try to substantiate them on the ground.
It is the benefit for all Somalilanders to have a free, air and credible elections and it’s detrimental to spread unfounded propaganda against Somaliland election stakeholders.
By:Mohamed Dahir Ahmed