Only two days after the Somaliland electoral commission declared Musa Behi Abdi the winner of the country’s fiercely contested presidential election of November 13, the president-elect and his closest contestant, Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi “Irro”, warmly embraced signaling a final burial of hatchets.
The two were brought together by the funeral of a prominent businessman and one of the most stalwart community elders of Burao and the whole of Togdheer region.
It could be said that Haji Yassin Gabahaddi succeeded to mend the tattered fences between the Kumiye and Waddani parties fences in death where the living balked to undertake such a step so soon after the two exchanged bitter accusations in a no-holds-barred contest.
Musa Behi, the president-elect, and Waddani leader, Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi, warmly embraced each other, exchanging pleasantries.
It was, in fact, a kind of a peace truce between the two parties as top officers of each camp accompanying the leaders, respectively, also melted into each other’s embrace one by one.
It was only yesterday, the interim chairman of Waddani, the Hon. Abdulkadir Haj Ismail Jirdeh, was vowing to mount an opposition the likes of which was never seen in Somaliland before against the president-elect.
MP Jirdeh went into a heated harangue against Mr. Abdi accusing him and the ruling party of embarking on a vendetta hunt against Waddani top campaigners after the government arrested the man whose false accusations started the disturbing Waddani demonstrations during which three lives were lost and over three dozen others sustained injuries some which were gunshots – on each side.
The primary suspect, a former minister himself, who is charged with facilitating the theft and false presentation of a commission ballot copy was arrested on Wednesday trying to leave the country on an onward flight to the United Kingdom where he lives.
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The meeting between the two erstwhile opponents marks another milestone unique only to Somaliland and its groundbreaking capacity to resolve differences without external assistance unlike its neighbor and political adversary, the Dependent Federal Government of Somalia, where over 100 000 foreign soldiers are said to be stationed in one capacity or another.
This uniqueness of character is earning more and friends for the beleaguered, unrecognized African state of Somaliland which restored its independence in 1960 after losing it to it in 1960 in an ill-fated union that ended in a protracted armed war against the two during which Somaliland lost over 50 000 people and its main cities got razed to the ground.
somaliland held its third presidential election successfully and to the accolade of the international community near and far. A great number of leaders of western, Arab and African nations added their applause to a feat rarely seen in nascent democracies congratulating the both President-elect and the out-going president as well as all of Somaliland on an exemplary track record over the years.
