The Deputy Chair of Waddani Party, one of two national opposition parties in Somaliland, submitted, today, another request for country-wide demonstrations to the Republic of Somaliland’s Ministry of Interior to be staged on Thursday May 13.
The letter states that Waddani is calling for these demonstrations to protest what it calls “an extension of term contradicting agreed-upon issues embodied in the National Electoral Commission” document.
The letter’s authors failed to note, however, that NEC had no mandate whatsoever to designate extensions and that this honor was within the constitutional jurisdiction of the House of Elders of Somaliland, alone.
Mr. Mohamed Mumin Seed’s letter comes a day after a similar call they made to their supporters failed in almost all the major cities in Somaliland with the exception of some tyre burning moments in Burao and a failed attempt in Berbera.
This time round, it is expected that Waddani puts in place some resistance measures against law enforcement officers following orders from the Ministry banning such rallies ‘in fear of saboteur elements taking advantage of the demonstrations’ – as Minister Waranadde put it earlier.
Militants within the opposition will not back down as expected, and given the poor understanding of political rallies in Somaliland among the public, the government will, neither, relent any being uneasy of how the rally can change to looting and destruction at any second during its course.
It is not clear why the Chairman of Waddani, the Hon. Abdirahman Irro, has no control over the militant elements in the party he leads at this critical stage.
The Honorable Irro happens to be the incumbent House Speaker of the House of Representatives – one of the two legislative houses in Somaliland’s bi-cameral parliament – whose term in office has also been extended the same length as that of the government in order that both parliamentary and presidential elections be conducted at the same time.
Copy of the letter (in Somali) that Waddani’s Seed submitted to the Ministry of Interior is shown below:
