Somaliland President Criticised For Divisive Comments

President Bihi delivered a speech at Agabar district on the way to Hargeisa after a visit to Djibouti.

“For the first two years of my term in office I was busy addressing grievances that resulted from the last presidential elections. We adopted multiparty politics too early, before our collective wounds of wars healed. The last presidential elections left a legacy of divided communities. We voted on the basis of clan allegiances. Some clans have interpreted the result as a defeat by a rival clan” said President Bihi.

The Chairman of the opposition party Waddani Abdirahman Mohammed Abdullahi, criticised President Bihi for the speech. “President Bihi has swapped the responsibilities of a President for a traditional leader’s title (Beeldaajiye)” said Abdirahman.

Faisal Ali Warabe, the leader of UCID, another opposition party, said it was unthinkable of a President to frame politics in those terms. “He should have secretly told his clansmen that they had won the Presidency of Somaliland” said Warabe.

Somaliland is preparing for parliamentary and local government elections to be conducted in 2021.

This article first appeared in the © Puntland Post, 2021 and is republished with permission.