Hiiraan Online
Thursday, June 25, 2015
HARGEISA (HOL) — Two major opposition parties in the breakaway northern Somalia region of Somaliland have accused the government of violating a recent deal of holding election on July 27th by trying to postpone timely elections.
At a joint press conference in the capital Hargeisa on Thursday, UCID and Wadani parties warned serious consequences should the government go ahead with its ‘blind’ decision of delaying elections.
Their warning echoes previous warning by EU, UK and the US who cautioned against a political instability in the region often referred as oasis of peace in a volatile region.
“Our message to the public is: the government will be accountable for anything happens in the region as the result of its unilateral decision of postponing elections,” says Feisal Ali Warabe, UCID
opposition party.
He accused the president Ahmed Silanyo of abusing his power by solely combining executive powers under his control, turning blind eyes and deaf ears to the dissents.
“Considering the government’s current political maneuver, we hereby declare that the government is not willing to hold election upon the date we agreed,” said Abdirahman Irro, the leader of WADANI party.
The election campaigns which has been underway for the past few weeks seem to be dying away with candidates say the government is reluctant to hold elections in July.
No comment could be reached from the government on this new development.
The government has recently assured opposition parties that it would hold election in July after they boycotted president’s term extension endorsed by the parliament which drew wider criticism from the
international community.
Opposition parties then urged dissolution of the two upper houses as the result of the endorsement of the president’s term extension, accusing them of failing to perform their duties as planned.
Somaliland, a breakaway region in northern Somalia has declared a unilateral independence from the rest of Somalia in 1991, however, no country has so far recognized it as an independent state.