Somalilandsun: The Somaliland elections 2021 have come to a conclusively peaceful end.
This follows the release of the last elections results by the National elections commission-NEC
While the results have been trickling in per electoral region and district the final results indicate that opposition Wadani party has won a majority of the 82 parliamentary seats on stake.
According to NEC the main opposition party scooped 31 seats while ruling Kulmiye garnered 30 with second opposition parry UCID grabbing the remaining 21 sseatsin the August house.
In the regionally contested parliamentary seats in which 246 candidates were contesting NEC results are as per the image below
In the battle for local Councils control in which 249 seats were on stake with over 500 contestants the vote share was almost an image of the parliamentary.
See graph below
Though Wadani has taken control of the house of representatives it will entail a coalition with fellow oppositionist UCID party to get full control
This is again the same mirror in local councils control in which ruling Kulmiye has only Lugahaya, Taleeh and Hudun in the pocket with the oppositionists taking a joint control share in the rest .
This elections enters the Annals of history with the first ever Minority Gabooye clan candidate for parliament garnering the highest votes in that category.
MP Elect Barkhad Batuun of the Wadani party, Maroidi-jeeh region, who is from the Gabooye clan garnered over 20, 000 votes to not only become the first minority clan member of the Somaliland parliament but the one garnering highest votes nationwide
I
n the local Councils elections Wadani party candidate for the Hargeisa municipality, Abdikarim Ahmed Mige garnered over 26000 votes the highest nationwide in the two elections categories.
All in all, though Wadani party members are celebrating their big win in which they have managed to dislodge ruling Kulmiye from control of the country’s parliament and most local Councils, there were no Losers in the elections 2021.
While the ruling Kulmiye parry lost political control , its leader and Somaliland president Musa Bihi Abdi shines having managed a very free and fair elections.
For UCID leader Eng Feisal Ali Warabe whose party made great inroads compared to past elections, his party ends up as kingmaker. For either Wadani or Kulmiye has to enter a coalition with party
For Irro and his Wadani party it was vindication after two past failures in which its support base failed to register as voters .
Those were the winners but for Women’s aspiration to a share in the political decision making process at the national and local levels the elections were a huge setback.
Only three women were elected as councillors and only in the Sool region’s districts of Buhoodle, Taleeh abd Hudun.
While elected to public office, the figure three out of over 249 is dismally but that said the now female elected civic leaders in Somaliland are
1. Councillor Kin Ali- Kulmiye party-Hudun district council, Sool region
2. Councillor Hawa Salaah- Wadani party – Taleeh Disrict Council, Sool region and
3. Councillor Khadija Ahmed-Kulmiye party- Buhoodle district council, Toghdeer region
This failure more painful because majority of voters are women was aptly summed up by Dr Edna Adan via tweeter
Abdikarim Olol (@Wariye_Olol) Tweeted:
Dr Adna Adan “I am disappointed in Somaliland’ democratic process”
When all the women who participated in the House of Representatives and Local Council elections failed
#SomalilandElections2021 https://t.co/DE4IzDdRiI https://twitter.com/Wariye_Olol/status/1401518589061050368?s=20
As for parliament it is now an all Male assembly as opposed to the outgoing one which had one women MP .
Finally as the country now focuses on the shared power between the Kulmiye administration, executive, and opposition parties , Legislative, the preliminary report by the Brenthurst Foundation organized international elections Monitoring mission suffices
“From what the Brenthurst Foundation’s mission saw during its period and scope of observation, the 31 May 2021 Somaliland election process was free, fair and credible” full report
