JEDDAH, 14 April 2003 — Approximately a million voters will cast their ballots today in breakaway Somaliland’s first multi-party presidential elections. The three presidential candidates have promised to work for peace and international recognition.
The former British protectorate of Somaliland seceded from the rest of Somalia in May 1991 and declared itself independent. No nation has recognized it as a separate sovereign state. Unlike the other regions of Somalia, Somaliland in the north has achieved stability and a state of law and order. It has also put in place an effective judiciary.
Dahir Riyaale Kahin, the leader of Somaliland, is the leading Udub party’s candidate. His challengers are the candidates from the Kulmiye and Ucid opposition parties. Kahin took office last May after the death of former leader Muhammad Ibrahim H. Igal in South Africa.
The chairman of the Election Commission has reportedly criticized the administration for not handing over all the promised funds to supervise the polls.
At the same time, during the campaign Ucid candidate Feisal Ali Waraabe expressed doubt that the election would be free and fair.
About 19 delegates from the US, the European Union, and the African Union have already arrived in the capital Hargeisa to observe the polls.
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Some areas in northeastern region of Puntland are facing serious water shortages, a regional official said. Puntland’s Acting Information Minister, Abdishakur Mire Adan, told a UN humanitarian website that the problem was most acute in the regions of Sool and Sanaag, which are claimed by both Puntland and the neighboring breakaway region of Somaliland.
“We have had very little rain in the Gu season (April to June) so far and the delay of the Gu season has exacerbated an already bad situation,” Adan said. He said his administration had dispatched fuel to some of the most seriously affected districts in Sanaag to help in the trucking of water.
He said that the Puntland administration has no means to deal with the situation, and it has called on international aid agencies to intervene before the situation deteriorates further. Adan said the first priority was to deliver water to affected areas and to distribute food to those who lost their livestock.
“Some of our people have reached the stage where they are no longer able to cope,” he warned. He appealed to the international community to come to the aid of the people of Puntland before it is too late.
