Opposition Leader Wins Somaliland Presidential Election

The opposition leader in Somaliland’s breakaway northern region, Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi, has won last week’s election, the region’s electoral commission said today.

Speaker of Somaliland’s parliament in 2005, the leader of the main opposition Waddani Party received more than 50% of the votes cast, the commission said.

Waddani campaigned on a platform of democratic reforms and social cohesion, as well as promising an alternative way of conducting economic policies, with a focus on tackling youth unemployment.

Elections in the region have been postponed twice since 2022 due to lack of funding, among other reasons.

President Muse Bihi Abdi of the ruling Kulmiye Party, who was seeking a second term in a seven-year term, won just over 30% of the votes counted.

Abdi's term in office was marked by his commitment to international recognition of the region as a sovereign state - which has operated as a "de facto" state since 1991, when it unilaterally declared independence from Somalia.

Somaliland has maintained its own government, currency and security structures and has built a stable political environment, in stark contrast to Somalia's security difficulties.

Somaliland's most recent agreement with neighboring Ethiopia, giving it access to the Indian Ocean in exchange for recognition, has sparked political tensions with Somalia, which accuses Addis Ababa of undermining Somalia's territorial integrity.

The opposition has called for the agreement with Ethiopia to bring greater economic benefits to Somaliland and has criticized the hasty and secretive way in which it was negotiated.

"Waddani expressed concern about the lack of tangible benefits for Somaliland in the MoU, particularly with regard to trade and regional support," Mohamed Husein Gaas, director of the Raad Peace Research Institute in Mogadishu, told the Associated Press.

Somali leaders have responded to the victory of the opposition party in Somaliland with hope for better relations between the country and the separatist region.

Former Somali Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire expressed his hope on social media that the new president will seek "a path of peace, development and democracy for the region, and take a leading role in strengthening the brotherhood and unity of the Somali people."