UCID and Wadani Party leaders Hitherto cutthroat political enemies resolve differences thus facilitating a united front against ruling party Kulmiye
By: Yusuf M Hasan
Somalilandsun – The two opposition political parties OF Wadani and UCID have buried their enmity following lengthily negotiations that ensued with the signing of pact of unity at the Ambassador hotel in Hargeisa on the 24th of July.
The two new friends together with Kulmiye make up the three registered national political parties as proscribed by the constitution that dictates that there shall be three political parties at any given period which are selected from numerous the three top groups during local council elections.
The leaders of Wadani and UCID parties Mr Abdirahman Irro and Eng. Feisal Ali Warabe respectively agreed to let bygones be gone and provide a united stand in the opposition political party business of counter checking and shadowing the ruling party Kulmiye.
The now buried enmity between the two emanated in late-2011 after Abdirahman Irro then a senior member of UCID party in which he vied for his parliamentary eat where he is now speaker of the house made a run for party leadership.
The bid to rem
ove the Eng. as party leader turned drastic after he, Warabe, refused to budge thus splintering the party in two, and then dubbed the Warabe and Waqaf factions. The late Waqaf led faction after failing completely to dislodge Feisal from his perch as founding party leader left UCID to form Wadani.
With many UCID heavyweights leaving for Wadani, the Eng. and his party were thought to be on the doldrums of political obscurity until youthful banker Jamal Ali Hasan then embroidered in his own leadership wrangles left his UDUB party thus join Warabe thence the rejuvenation of the second oldest party in the country.
Following the November 2012 local council elections that were contested by seven political groups UCID, Wadani and Kulmiye emerged top three thus get the official nob from the Political Parties Registration and Verification Committee-PPR&VC for registration.
Since the Irro bid for UCID party leadership in 2011 followed by the establishment of Wadani the two parties and their leaders have been at loggerheads at each other sometimes more vehement than their opposition to the ruling Kulmiye party which if the pact holds will have a few gaps to block.
The announcement of the UCID Wadani Cooperation pact which was received with jubilation nationwide has also elicited the support of the recently formed Council of National Reform and Consultation-CoNR&C that congratulated the two parties and their leaders for what it termed a bold move that will go a long way in safeguarding national interests at all fronts.
Now that the opposition parties and their leadership are no longer locked in combat citizens are awaiting the
impact of the cooperation pact especially as pertains to the reigning in of the ruling Kulmiye party that has enjoyed carte blanche authority as a result of the hitherto acrimony between the UCID and Wadani.
