UCID Chair laments over President’s Stubbornness

The chairman of the opposition party UCID expressed profound frustration with president Muse Bihi’s stubbornness that pitying him against the whole country.

Speaking at a function to honor the outgoing National Electoral Commission, Faisal Ali Warabe said the President rejected the mediation committee led by UCID party

I have one good news. The dialogue over the new electoral commission, which we were facilitating together with former presidents are not over. The president has rejected the meditation. We are handing the task over to the businessmen, the people who own the most assets in the country, and religious leaders. I hope although very much, that president BIHI will agree to a solution.

Faisal Ali Warabe

Faysal Ali Warabe expressed deep frustration with president Muse Bihi’s combativeness. He said he had begged the president to reach an agreement with opposition parties for the past two years. He announced that he will no longer plead with president Bihi anymore. Faisal Ali Warabe said the row is not between President Muse and the people of Somaliland. 

The president who we hoped to reform the country, the man we were thinking was a veteran that sacrificed for the country and has rich experience, do not know any other way except stubbornness. That’s all he knows. I have been begging him for two years, I kissed his forehead, which I never did for my father. I am done begging the man we have honored, made president, endorsed, and worked with him.And the people of Somaliland will not beg him.

Faisal Ali Warabe

A mediation committee including SNM veterans, the opposition party UCID and civil society organizations were working together diffuse the political crisis caused by the electoral stalemate. The committee had on Monday convinced Waddani party to cancel a public gathering scheduled for Monday In Hargeisa.

The stalemate centers on the dispute over the members of the electoral commission which oversees elections. The opposition parties strongly oppose the nomination and approval of Abdirashid Riyoraac who is universally accused of being partisan.