Somaliland: Opposition Coalition Nominates House of Representatives Speaker

The two Official Somaliland national opposition parties of Waddani and UCID, today, divided the upcoming parliament house-speaker post and his two deputies between them.

Waddani took the chair, naming Abdirizak Khalif Ahmed, and UCID the first and second deputies, naming Omar Jama Farah and Ali Hamud Jibril for the posts, respectively.

The Oppostion allance nominee Messers Abdirizak is contesting ex-foreign minister Yassin Mohamoud Hiir ‘Faratoon’ who is running for the House-speakership. Both were elected from Sool.

Omar Jama comes from Sanaag while Ali Hamud is from Awdal.

The nomination is not binding since, constitutionally, these positions will be filled by a sitting house which puts candidates to vote. That will happen once the President calls the House to convene which date hasn’t been decided yet.

Both chairmen of the Somaliland National Party (Waddani) and the Justice and Welfare Party (UCID) Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi ‘Irro’ and Faisal Ali Waraabe, respectively, warned of government interference.

The Chairmen expressed confidence that now that they have named their line-up for the top three positions of the parliament, and, given that they have a majority floor of 52 MPs, the ascent to parliament leadership was a foregone conclusion.

The nominees, themselves, echoed the party leaders, thumbing themselves on the back and not the least concerned of the outcome of the upcoming House vote once it was convened.

In fact, this could be the case if the ranks of the newly-elected opposition MPs hold. That is a big ‘if’, as analysts point out, since other factors among which are clan pressure and sealed envelopes passing under the table can still be possible game-changers in the period leading to the first decisive session of the new parliament.

The big surprise in the matter was that UCID quashed the ambitions of its long-term General-Secretary, Abdinassir Qodah, who made it known that he had his eye on the First Deputy post.

The nominated House-Speaker and his Second Deputy, interestingly, were both ardent Kulmiye members for a long time before each debarked within the last 4 years with Khalif going to Waddani and Hamud to UCID. Both served as ministers with the former Kulmiye government of Ahmed Mohamed Mohamoud ‘Siilaanyo’.

Source: Somtribune