Somaliland polls open
2005-09-29 12:14
Hargeisa - Polls opened across Somalia's breakaway republic of Somaliland on Thursday to elect members of parliament with the hope that the exercise will boost its chance of world recognition as a state independent of a nation in chaos.
Since the region declared its independence from Somalia proper in 1991, the election is the third since multiparties were allowed in 2000 and the first to elect members of parliament.
About 800 000 out of Somaliland's estimated 3.5 million population are eligible to cast their ballots to elect 82 MPs.
Most of the 985 polling stations opened at 06:00 and will close at 18:00.
More than 100 accredited observers from South Africa, European Commission and other independent monitors distributed across the region are participating in the exercise, the poll panel said.
'Justice needed'
"This is the time to tell the international community that we need a state as an independent republic of Somaliland," president Dahir Riyale Kahin said as he voted in Hargeisa.
"We have fulfilled our responsibility as a government of Somaliland to implement democracy as we promised our people. What we need is justice from the international community," he added.
Police guarded polling station and others patrolled the streets as voting started, nearly a week after police raided an alleged al-Qaeda base in the capital Hargeisa and arrested a senior operative allegedly planning to organise attacks on local leaders and foreigners.
"More police officers have already been deployed and many more will patrol the streets in case of electoral violence or saboteurs plan nasty acts," said one top police official, who is charged with ensuring voting goes without hiccups.
Somalia to gain recognition
Some observers expect the exercise would help Somaliland to gain international recognition as an independent state, free from Somalia proper where a growing dispute over the seat of that government is hampering efforts to restore a functional administration to end 14 years of disorder.
In the past, the international community has repeatedly spurned Somaliland's quest for recognition, fearing this could exacerbate instability in the already highly volatile Horn of Africa.
The ruling party Union of Democrats (Udub) and the opposition groups the Hisbiga Kulmiye (Solidarity Party) and Justice and Welfare Party (Ucid) - which lost in the 2003 presidential elections - agree it is time to recognise their nation.
All sides claim 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.
On other matters, the Udub and its political foes rarely see eye-to-eye.