By: Abdikarim Saed Salah
Thursday - December 9, 2021
Introduction
Politics
is intensifying in Somaliland where active political parties are in the
business of restructuring themselves ahead of the major presidential
election scheduled next year. These re-structures are aimed to foster
new alliances and/or maintain old ones to secure the votes of the major
voting groups in the country. Oppositional parties are in a constant
hustle toward the presidency post amid a massive restructuring that is
taking place within the ranks of their leadership.
Battleground:
On the 16th of
November, the oppositional party of Waddani restructured its
leadership, selecting a new chairman along with six deputies who were
given the same ranks and titles within the party leadership structure.
The selection took place at the party’s congressional meeting where Mr
Hersi Ali Hassan, a former member of the ruling Kulmiye party and the
sole candidate for the post, was selected as the new chairman with no
official contest– something many analysts in the local politics perceive
as an election tactic by the opposition toward achieving popularity in
the eastern regions where the new selectee hails from in an expectation
that the ruling party will pick the Minister of Interior, Hon. Mohamed
Kahin, as the next in line chairman as both hail from the same
constituency.
Subsequently,
the Waddani party leaders gave different reasons for the leadership
re-structure that took place within the party, calling it a democratic
exercise in which their party has championed by separating party
chairmanship from the presidential candidacy; even though the party’s
presidential candidate, the former chairman Mr Abdirahman Irro, was not
himself subject to the democratic exercise by abstaining from the vote of confidence during the congressional meeting.
However,
the ruling party of Kulmiye is making it difficult for opposition
parties to even yield fruits as the Minister of Health Development, Hon.
Hassan Mohamed Ali (Gaafaadhi) – a prominent politician, has announced
his candidacy for the chairmanship of the ruling Kulmiye party – where
the president is expected to vacate soon. Following the announcement,
there were many communal gatherings in support of his candidacy, namely
in; Buro’a, Balidhiig, Gar’adag, Aynaba, El-afweyn, and Erigavo.
Elders, traditional chiefs, women and youth have all gathered to express
their support of the candidacy of the Hon. Hassan Gaafaadhi, denoting
the extent of his influence in the country in general and in their
communities in eastern regions in particular.
Why’s Hassan popular?
The
support of the communities comes in gratitude for years of
developmental interventions ushered by Hon. Hassan, as a development
practitioner and former heads of many humanitarian assistance missions
in Somaliland, saw many developmental projects in the areas of water,
health, sanitation, protection, agriculture, livestock and remarkably
other interventions aimed at social rehabilitation that were implemented
both back in the war era during inter-tribal conflicts and insecurities
and then when Somaliland was in the course of its state-building. The
background of the Minister remains closely tied with community
development, civil service and nation-building. Some of the projects
that were implemented through the developmental interventions he once
headed are still of benefit for the local communities.
Moreover,
Hon. Hassan Gaafaadhi is a seasoned politician who is widely recognized
in the 2012 political associations’ contest where his political
association known as RAYS emerged victorious in the eastern regions
where some of its elected council members made to mayoral positions in
major cities, including the second-largest city in Somaliland – Buro’a.
The RAYS political association came short in getting promoted as a
political party due to grave political pressures mounted against it as
the association leader, Hon. Hassan Gaafaadhi was seen as a political
threat to the then-government in Somaliland.
Counter-strategy:
Consequently,
the announcement strategically comes with desperate efforts of
oppositional parties to achieve popularity in the eastern regions and
pull apart masses of support for the ruling party in the eastern
regions– a reason many observers of the local politics believe the
chairmanship of Hon. Hassan Gaafaadhi will be of remedy and fits as the
most effective counter-strategy for the ruling party against
oppositional expansionism theory. Many people in eastern regions believe
that for Kulmiye to maintain the support from the masses of voters in
eastern regions, it has to employ a different counter-strategy than that
taken by the opposition. It is believed for a fact that the
chairmanship of Hon. Hassan Gaafaadhi will serve as a great blow in the
face of opposition given how his constituency remains a huge force to
reckon in countering oppositional expansionism. Oppositional
expansionism is centred on Hersi’s Waddani chairmanship; a quid-pro-quo
for votes. However, the fact of Hon. Hassan’s being at the helm of the
ruling party will have the opposition having lost all or nearly all hope
of making that ‘quid-pro-quo work.
By: Abdikarim Saed Salah
Hargeisa
[email protected]