In 4 of the 6 Districts of the Northern Regions (Somaliland) where the majority of the population lived and where there was also a call for boycotting the referendum, the percentages of No votes ranged from 72% to 60%.
The overall recorded figures for the two Northern Regions was 54% NO for the Hargeisa Region and 48.81% for the Burao Region (which was largely accounted for by the high Yes percentage votes in the 2 districts of Borama and Las Anod).
In contrast, with the exception of Hiran Region where there was a No vote of 68% , the No vote in all the other 5 Southern (Somalia) regions was in single digits ranging from 8% to 0.5%.
Incredible ‘Yes’ figures were recorded for many districts signified, at worst, by Wala Weyn district which officially recoded 100% Yes. “Waal Weyn” became the sobriquet for “Southern” Somalis (Somalians) from that time onwards and still widely used by Somalilanders.
The recorded 1.94 million votes (with 1.75 million Yes votes – 90.1%) far exceeded any total votes at any national election in the 1960s. Indeed in the 1964 National Assembly elections, the total national recorded votes was well below a million votes – 914,069. The 1961 figures were only surpassed on 25 August 1979 when the outcome of a referendum on the 1979 Dictatorship Constitution was reported as having been a Yes vote of 3,597,592 (99.79%).
Find the whole doc here: The_1961_Referendum_Table1_Note
This is the 24th posting of a reproduction o f a series of historical notes, articles, tracts and academic discourses to mark proud landmarks in the history of Somaliland from 1884 which highlight events leading to the country’s two independences of 1960 & 1991.
