Somalilandsun- The Haqsoor party has submitted a letter to British Member of parliament Sir Alun Micheal detailing the problems existing as pertains to the local council elections held on 28th November 2012-editor
Dear member of parliament
I would like to express my gratitude and appreciation for your continuous support of Somaliland. I am one of the Somaliland Diaspora and a constituent of Sir Alun Michael that lives in South ofCardiffbut visited Hargeisa Somaliland to observe the local elections. This is the firs local elections that Mr Silanyo held since he came to power in the mid of 2010. Seven political parties were taking part in this local election that took place on 28/11/2012. However, this was the most corrupted, unjust and unfair elections in the history of Somaliland. There was a wide spread electoral fraud that caused complains to all political parties with the exception of the twobeneficiaryparties (KULMIYE) owned by the head of government Mr Silanyo and (WADANI) owned by the head of parliament.
KULMIYE ruling party and some high government officials had close association with the National Electoral Commission (NEC) on the election day. They had big influence to control the votes using government power to alter votes which may in this way deemed to be unfair in this election. Thegovernment allowed the refugees from South of Somalia as well as Ethiopian refugees living in Somaliland to vote for them which they are interested in wining the election by obtaining both legal and illegal votes. KULMIYE was usinggovernmental transport in which electoral plate numbers were fitted. There was a perceived misuse ofgovernment funding for local elections which could provide them a significant advantage over opposition parties.
Somaliland constitution demonstrates that national interest and properties are not frittered away by a profligate leadership. Theconstitutioncharges with a watchdog duty of protecting and preservingpublicproperty and to fight againstmisap
propriationand squandering of public funds. This promotes the security and welfare of Somaliland people in which Mr Silanyo is in a breach of criminal and Acts of fraudulent. This is however, a violation of International and local Electoral Code of Conduct and this is the reason that they pushed all political parties to take part an elections without proper registration and lack of photo Identity (ID) requirement to commit electoral fraud.
One of the political parties that met the highest level of intimidation, violence and fraud during the election day as well as counting the votes from KULMIYE ruling party as well as Electoral Commission is XAQSOOR. Six voting boxes belonging to XAQSOOR party was kept uncounted until now in ZAYLA region West of Somaliland. 99 boxes belonging to this opposition XAQSOOR party were stolen from SOOL region East of Somaliland and a district under SOOL region XUDDUN was refused to supply voting facilities due to unreasonable purpose excusing that there is no peace in that area. Other districts in SANAG region such as BADHAN, DHAHAR and HINGALOL were not allowed to cast their votes after the government knew that there are a high number of XAQSOOR supporters. Some other political parties adopted the same posture such as UMMADA and RAYS opposition parties.
All the people were swallowed up in thepursuit of poorly managed local elections where rigging was reported as wide spread infavor of the government party and the associate WADANI party, but others fall victims.
The international observers had witnessed that government officials were continuously approaching the National Electoral Commission for fraud purposes. The observers experienced under age delegates between 7-10 years old pouring to the polling stations to vote for KULMIYE party which is a violation of International and Somaliland Code of Conduct. The observers also witnessed electoral ink washers in every corner of the ballot stations to wash off the dye that was applied to forefinger to prevent double voting.
Hargeisa, is where the most fraud and deprive of this opposition XAQSOOR party happened. It was recorded that 66,000 out of 250,000 voters belonging to XAQSOOR were thrown out to the bin excusing computer data virus. Many voting papers belonging to this party were set on fire and others were displaced on the streets of Hargeisa.
The voters of XAQSOOR political party protested the allegedelections peacefully. The government calledBritish trainedRisk Restricted Unit (RRU) that has counter-terrorism capabilities and applied excessive use of force such as armedvehicles and life bullets to crackdown thedemonstrators of whom were women and children. Four people have been killed and other 12 people have been badly injured. Video evidence was recorded showing armed forces shooting the innocent civilians. As a result, this caused that XAQSOOR opposition party to boycott the electoral results.
The leader of XAQSOOR party Mr Hassan Isse Jama had showed his respect to those died and injured in the demonstration in a crowd of some 3000 people inside Hargeisa stadium. He told them that peace is important to us and should be preserved and maintained. He also demanded the votes of disputed regions and districts to bere corrected.
Moreover, Somaliland failed to implement and protect the rights of vulnerable people including women and children and not facilitating effective cooperation with the special procedures of Human Rights Council (HRC). The situation of Human Rights in Somaliland is troubling as charecterised by the extreme brutality used against civilians including unreasonable arrest, phone hacking on opposition parties leaders, unjustifieddismissive of employees which is a breach ofWorkplace Relations Act 1996 (WRA) and loss of public funding have been witnessed since Mr Silanyo came to power in the mid of 2010.
Human Rights in Somaliland and Somalia were demonstrated in London and Istanbul conferences which underlined the importance of advancing the protection and promotion of Human Rights and the rule of law in Somaliland. Nevertheless, this has a decisive impact on Somaliland democracy process which can in turn damage the peace and harmony that Somaliland is experiencing. Therefore, as a Somaliland diaspora in UK we are suggesting organisations such as Somaliland International Recognition Action Group, United Nations Political Office for Somalia (UNPOS) and donor agencies that funded these elections may review the electoral fraud and the killing of innocent people expressing their views in democratic and apeaceful way. Attached here is a photo of a young man Ridwan Hassan that the armed forcesmassacred him during the peaceful demonstration in Hargeisa on 07/12/2012
By Hassan Isse Jama
Xaqsoor Chairman
