Tuesday, March 19, 2024
Wardheer News
  • Opinion
  • Slideshow

Winds of Change: Reading Closely Puntland’s Presidential Election

By Faisal A. Roble

“PDF recognizes the serious challenges ahead, yet PDF is confident that the new President will fulfill his election promises to usher in dynamic governance…… also confident that the President-elect will work with the Somali Federal Government….” Puntland Forum, Somali American PAC

Developmental Democracy at the Local Level

If Samuel Huntington employed the catch phrase, “third wave,” in his seminal but controversial book The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century to assess the transition of about 60 countries in Europe, Asia, Latin American, and Africa, to a form of democratic governance, Puntland’s election of President Abdiwali Gaas could be tantamount to “winds of change” blowing in the Somali peninsula.  Due to the relatively clean and fair process, this election of Dr. Gaas has far reaching import for Somalia’s state reconstruction and social repair.

Faroole_Abdiwali
Peaceful transfer of Power in Puntland

On January 8, 2014, Puntland has shown to the rest of Somalia that Somalis are capable to adapt to a democratic culture similarly as they did in 1967 at the defeat of Aden Abdulle Osman.  To date, the autonomous state of Puntland has successfully conducted three presidential power transfers with a credible fairness and free of corruption, thus showing a sustained electoral culture. Central to this change is Puntland’s leaders, the public at large, the long struggle the residents of the state waged for a meaningful change and its infallible council of elders.

The first president of Puntland was the late Abdullhi Yusuf Ahmed Yeey (1998), who is also believed to be the founder of the first armed resistance, in 1978, to the late dictator, Mohamed Siyyad Bare.  With the political muscle Abdullahi Yusuf gained by defeating and ejecting from his territory Al-Itihad Al-Islamia (a precursor to the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), a religious political Islam that lately morphed into Al-Shabab (armed wing) and Dum-Al-Jadid (political wing), he helped found the Puntland state.  At the founding time, the rest of former Italian Somalia was and still is to some degree under the curse of vicious political disarticulation and religious radicalism that devastated the fabric of their society.

Mr. Abdulahi Yusuf rose to become the second post-civil war President of Somalia between 2004 through 2008, leaving his vice President, Mohamed Abdi Hashi, to finish the term. In the ensuing election of 2005, former General Cade Muuse Hirsi was elected serving a full term up to 2009.

The outgoing President, Abdirahman Mohamed Faroole, came to office in 2009.  In those five years, the outgoing President achieved tangible results with some nagging problems haunting him regularly.

Sleepless Night

With a large section of the Somali speaking world, diplomats and international journalists glued to a live streaming TV coverage of the fourth election from the capital city of Garowe, Puntland has once again captured the imaginations of a nation hungry for peace, stability and the resumption of the once-proud Somali state.

The attention Somalis directed at this latest Puntland election parallels that of the boxing story, “Champion of the World,” which Maya Angelou so ably narrated in one of her classical essays.  She retold this story after listening it as a child in 1930.  The outcome of the fight between an African American and a white boxer was so decisive that she left no detail untouched.

The mood of this election was equally so important to many Somalis for different reasons.  Nonetheless, it kept us all awake on that particular fateful night of January 7, 2014. Like many millions of Somalis, I forfeited my sweet night sleep watching the countdown to the finish line; the suspenseful counting of votes in the last round with alternate names of the two finalists called up, Faroole…, Gaas…, Faroole, Gaas, Gaas…, on and on, and finally one vote bad, and no hanging chads, we were treated with the ultimate results of 32 for Faroole, and 33 for Gaas! Surprise! Surprise! A new President is announced.

Inside my bedroom, in the wee hours of the night, I was witnessing a Somali version of a story as captivating as that fight between Joe Louis v. Primo Carnera.  As soon as the upsetting result was announced, my cell phone started buzzing off the hook. In the end, I must have convinced myself that burning the midnight oil and the accompanied temporal deprivation of a night’s sleep was worthwhile.

Otherwise, how else could I have witnessed firsthand the momentous concession speech when former President Abdirahman Mohamod Faroole on his part declared: “the process was a fair election and I am conceding that I was defeated?”

The scene of the entrenched Somali Australian Faroole conceding to the Somalia American political carpetbagger, Dr. Gaas, reminded me of a difficult concession speech, only this time the sliver spoon-fed English aristocratic-born former President George Bush Sr. conceding to the comeback kid, Bill Clinton from Hope, Arkansas, a small sharecropper town.  Don’t also forget that Puntland is getting the Hillary Clinton’s proverbial “two for one” in that both he and his wife are accomplished professors of economics in New York. No wonder Dr. Gaas emphasized in his speech equality in the eyes of the law.

If it is not wasted, it is quite plausible that the Puntland election of January 8, 2014 could pass as a precious moment not only for the region but for the democratization of the entire Somali peninsula. To wit, in an Orwellian way, this election could prove to be a throwback to one of the nation’s greatest moments, when Adan Abdulle Osman, in 1967, earned the prestige of Africa’s first democratic leader to accept defeat with dignity.  Adan Abulle Osman was defeated in the 1967 presidential election, and he peacefully handed power over to his successor, Abdi-Rashid Ali Sharmarke.

In the same vein, when the now former President Abdurrahman Mohamoud Faroole was defeated on Wednesday 8, 2014 by Dr. Abdiwali Ali Gaas, Mr. Faroole followed the footsteps of Aden Abdule Osman. “As difficult as this loss was for the incumbent, President Faroole congratulated both his supporters and those who voted for President-elect Gaas” wrote a timely editorial column by Wardheernews.

If indeed Adan Abdulle taught his nation a valuable lessons when it was strong and united riding high on the expansive blue skies that once personified the nation’s unbounded dreams, former President Faroole is teaching us now a lesson in his own way at a difficult time when the nation is weak and disheveled –  nonetheless worthy lessons at both times.

Electing Dr. Gaas indeed reverberated beyond Puntland. As one of the key leaders who had delivered the nation’s budding Provisional Federal Constitution, the end of transition and the establishment of regional states, the election of Dr. Gaas to this new presidency could signify a new dawn; one indisputable lesson is that Somalia has probably embarked on a course of no return from a unitary state into a form of what I call federal union (my emphasis).

In the short history of Africa’s flirtation with federalism, this is one of the few cases where a person with a former Premiership portfolio returns back to his region and decides to serve as a president at the state level.  The closest historical parallel to this situation is that of John Adams, USA, who served first as a US President and then as a member of the Massachusetts Senate, contributing equally to both ends of the nation’s politics.  This reversal of political role could mean, or is perhaps, that the periphery regions of the country are no longer relegated.

Moving forward

Almost all the finalist candidates ran on a progressive platform that had articulated issues of law and order, anti-terrorism and anti-piracy, resolving the issue of Sool, Sanaag and Cayn.  But President–elect Gaas has with charm and winning speech succeeded to articulate a coherent program that drove his candidacy home.

He had promised to tackle issues of jobs creation, equality of all its citizens in front of law, rebuilding and strengthening public institutions, and earning his state its rightful place in the restructuring of Somalia – that is giving more say to states like his without trampling the federal arrangement.

Both Mr. Gaas’ election and the appointment of a new Prime Minister in Mogadishu, Abdiwali Sheikh Ahmed, represent an opportunity as well as a challenge to Mogadishu’s ailing federal government.  Dr. Gaas’ paymaster, though, is the people of Puntland, and as such Mogadishu should expect of him hard bargain and skillful talks on several issues including on the protocol for states boundaries demarcations (article 49), on equitable distribution of international aid to Somalia (Article 53), and on the finalization of the Provincial Federal Constitution.

Those who are close to Dr. Gaas maintain that he will also amicably cooperate with Mogadishu on matters of national security; Owing to his background as an economics professor, he could skillfully exert more pressure on matters pertaining to banking and setting regulatory instruments for national currency as well as the remapping of state boundaries within the federal government structure.

What is not clear is, however, how much Mogadishu would be willing to cooperate with Garowe under Gaas.  In the past, President Hassan has shown tendencies of autocratic rule and an open apathy towards the country’s federal constitution. He unnecessarily polarized the country and antagonized regional leaders to the detriment of his “political capital”. At times, he willy-nilly sabotaged the constitutional process and his ill-advised adventurism had almost gravely submerged the country into the post 1991civil war culture.

The “winds of change” blowing out of Puntland must teach valuable lessons to President Hassan Sheikh: (1) a federalist union of Somalia is here to stay; (2) that power should be shared between states and Mogadishu; and (3) the culture of unregulated autocratic rule based in the center has died with the late dictator, Mohamed Barre.  To make Mogadishu relevant, President Hassan must unfortunately get used to seriously conduct meaningful engagement with Dr. Gaas.

Faisal A. Roble
Email:[email protected]


We welcome the submission of all articles for possible publication on WardheerNews.com. WardheerNews will only consider articles sent exclusively. Please email your article today . Opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of WardheerNews.

WardheerNew’s tolerance platform is engaging with diversity of opinion, political ideology and self-expression. Tolerance is a necessary ingredient for creativity and civility.Tolerance fuels tenacity and audacity.

WardheerNews waxay tixgelin gaara siinaysaa maqaaladaha sida gaarka ah loogu soo diro ee aan lagu daabicin goobo kale. Maqaalkani wuxuu ka turjumayaa aragtida Qoraaga loomana fasiran karo tan WardheerNews.

Copyright © 2024 WardheerNews, All rights reserved

2 Responses to “Winds of Change: Reading Closely Puntland’s Presidential Election”


    Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Class 'Roots_Walker_Comment' not found in /home/forge/wardheernews.com/public/wp-content/themes/roots/templates/comments.php:11 Stack trace: #0 /home/forge/wardheernews.com/public/wp-includes/comment-template.php(1554): require() #1 /home/forge/wardheernews.com/public/wp-content/themes/roots/templates/content-single.php(46): comments_template('/templates/comm...') #2 /home/forge/wardheernews.com/public/wp-includes/template.php(772): require('/home/forge/war...') #3 /home/forge/wardheernews.com/public/wp-includes/template.php(716): load_template('/home/forge/war...', false, Array) #4 /home/forge/wardheernews.com/public/wp-includes/general-template.php(204): locate_template(Array, true, false, Array) #5 /home/forge/wardheernews.com/public/wp-content/themes/roots/single.php(1): get_template_part('templates/conte...', 'single') #6 /home/forge/wardheernews.com/public/wp-content/themes/roots/base.php(23): include('/home/forge/war...') #7 /home/forge/wardheernews.com/public/wp-includes/template-loade in /home/forge/wardheernews.com/public/wp-content/themes/roots/templates/comments.php on line 11
    WordPress › Error

    There has been a critical error on this website.

    Learn more about troubleshooting WordPress.