Somaliland hopes for 'respect'
2005-09-15 18:58
Mogadishu - Somalia's breakaway region of Somaliland holds parliamentary polls later this month with the hope the exercise will boost its chance at world recognition as a state independent of a nation in chaos.
An island of relative stability in region blighted by conflict since it unilaterally declared independence in 1991, Somaliland would on September 29 conduct its third multi-party elections.
The rest of the Horn of Africa nation founders were in lawlessness, despite the creation of a transitional federal government.
With a growing dispute over the seat of that government, hampering efforts to restore a functional administration to end 14 years of disorder elsewhere, people of Somaliland saw the polls as a way to show their political maturity.
Somali people deserve better
While Somaliland's ruling party and opposition traded accusations on the campaign trail ahead of polling day, finance minister Awil Ali Duale said he believed the region deserved a reward for its commitment to democracy.
He said: "Our elections are more transparent than many countries in the region.
"I hope the world will give us the right of recognition. Recognising Somaliland is like promoting democracy in Africa."
"The world should give us the place we deserve.
"Somaliland should not be left out in the cold for nothing, we are free people who deserve better treatment from the outside world."
Self-administering people
Duale said: "Please give us credit for being disciplined, self-administering people. It is unfair to keep us away from the world until the warlords in Somalia agree on something.
"Bringing back Somaliland to former Somalia is like attempting to bring back the former Soviet Union."
Despite such appeals, the international community had repeatedly spurned Somaliland's quest for recognition, fearing this could exacerbate instability in the already highly volatile Horn of Africa.
The demand for international recognition was one of the few issues on which the ruling Union of Democrats (UDUB) party and the two main opposition groups agree.
All sides claimed credit for Somaliland's decision to secede from the fractured larger state in May 1991 after the ouster of strongman Mohamed Siad Barre plunged much of the country into a patchwork of unruly fiefdoms run by fractious warlords and their militias.
UDUB 'buy votes'
On other matters, the UDUB and its political foes - the Hisbiga Kulmiye (Solidarity Party) and Justice and Welfare Party (UCID), which lost in the 2003 presidential elections - rarely saw eye-to-eye.
Since the campaign begun last month, the Hisbiga Kulmiye and UCID had frequently accused the UDUB of using state resources to buy votes.
Kulmiye leader Ahmed Mohamud Silanyo said: "It is unfortunate to see the government using the public funds to promote its single-party interest.
"This is illegal, unconstitutional and is decaying our democracy.
"Our hard-won peace in Somaliland should be respected by all parties."