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The postponement of the elections due to the unsettled disputes on the recent Somaliland voter registration and server malfunctions has no place in the Somaliland Constitution. The constitution clearly states in Article 83," The Only way the Gurti can postpone an election or extend the president term is only and only if there is a catastrophe or war which makes impossible to hold elections. The refusal of the Somaliland Commission to set the date of the up-coming presidential election on May 31, 2009 and later agreeing with the Gurti’s decision to hold it on September 27, 2009 is another indication of buying time or to delay the elections by any means necessary. This shows clearly that Mr. Riyale is not only the president but also has a complete control over the Somaliland election Commission as well as the House of the Elders. Somaliland Political Parties (Kulmiye and UCID) must undertake concrete steps to educate the people about their rights. It is likely that the government will take further measures to intimidate the public and abuse their civil rights in exercising their privilege to elect their representatives. But they should not let down the pressure and organize peaceful demonstrations and use the media to reverse this unfortunate decision. Riyale’s government has launched an aggressive nationwide campaign to coerce the voters into signing up with their party. In addition it started monitoring the activities of the opposition parties and other groups it considers politically suspect, such as non-governmental organizations (NGOs), students and academics. Recently, the government have distributed a directive to all Hotels banning them from allowing Kulmiye Party members to hold their meetings at their properties. This is exactly one of the strategies of how the late president Siad Barre has intimated the Somaliland people. Media regulations issued for the election campaign period has not rectified opposition political parties’ lack of equal access to the broadcast media. The International and local observer groups have to make much of a presence in monitoring this flawed electoral process. Under the circumstances, there is no way elections scheduled on September 27, 2009 can be free and fair, and no chance that a deeply flawed and delayed electoral process will help Somaliland either to establish democracy or bring an end to disruption of Riyales’ government activity by a disgruntled opposition. We therefore believe that the elections should be held as specified by the Somaliland Commission on May 31, 2009 and not postponed. We caution, however, that holding the elections in a timely fashion alone will achieve little unless the Somali Land citizens and the international community speaks with one voice in setting forth the conditions that must be met to guarantee a fair election and backs that up with significant economic and diplomatic pressure. If the momentum toward meeting the May 31, 2009 date can be halted, we believe the International Community -- many of whom were instrumental in the peace process of Somalia-organized elections -- have a particular responsibility to try and ensure the safety of the voters and reduce the likelihood that the voting will be manipulated, without at the same time lending legitimacy to the process by providing "technical assistance" to the Somaliland government. The most important step the International Community could take at this stage is to ensure that as many qualified observers and monitors arrive in the country as soon as possible, to act as a deterrent to political violence and intimidation of voters and candidates in the months that remain, to monitor the actual polling and vote-counting and protect the secrecy of the ballot. In addition, if elections go forward, the donors should also insist on a minimum set of conditions that are entirely within the Somaliland government's power to meet, even at this late date. The government should be asked to: 1) Take immediate and concrete steps to assure the electorate on how they or their village vote will not be traced back or used against them. The best way to do this would be by moving the location of the ballot count from the commune to the provincial level and provide extra security and additional international monitors to accompany the ballot boxes during transport. 2) Revise the media regulations established for the electoral campaign period to enable immediate and full access of all parties to government-owned or -controlled media and the right of ownership by political parties of private media, as well as the right of political parties to broadcast or print political statements. Amend the media regulations to disallow pre-press censorship by the National Election Commission, which is in violation of Somaliland's Constitution and press law. Broaden the amount of airtime for all political parties and improve the content of election coverage by facilitating election programming on television and radio by independent NGOs (round table discussions, talk shows, and the like). 3) Make public statements to underscore the secrecy of the ballot, explicitly stating that voters should vote their consciences and are in no way beholden to any pre-poll pledges that may have made to vote for any party. Such statements are likely to ring hollow, however, unless a massive international monitoring presence is in place. 4) Publicly acknowledge that the U.N.'s coordination of international observers, as well as the presence of significant numbers of electoral observers, should extend beyond the vote count to monitor the post-election transition. 5) Impose sanctions from the election law on parties that coerce or pressure villagers to join or pledge to vote for them, although how free villagers will feel to raise complaints about coercion in the current climate is a real question. Meeting the above conditions will not necessarily guarantee a fair election, but it might reduce the possibility of abuse and intimidation. It will then be the responsibility of the International Community to begin work immediately on a program that will at least try to ensure that Somaliland moves in a direction that will make future elections fairer. Finally, we urge the Government, the political parties, the Somaliland Election Commission, the House of Representatives, the House of Elders to meet and come up with another reasonable date to hold the Presidential elections and save the country from further calamity, confusion and destruction. Dr. Mohamed Osman Nur-Shacabi We welcome the submission of all articles for possible publication on WardheerNews.com So please email your article today Opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of WardheerNews |
