Somaliland will be going to their presidential and political party election on Wednesday this week to elect their president in a decisive vote which will give the country more impetus in its quest for international recognition as an independent state.
And as the clock ticks down the streets keep changing colour every day as political parties take turns to stage their campaign rallies.
From Borama in the west to the Erigavo mountains in the northeast and the capital Hargeisa, cities and towns have erupted in a riot of colour over the past 21 days of campaigns that ended on Sunday.
From the green of ruling party Kulmiye, the orange of opposition Waddani and red of political association KAAH the streets have been littered with varied party colours.
Wednesday vote comes amid high tensions in the Horn of Africa over a maritime deal between Somaliland and Ethiopia that has enraged Mogadishu, which rejects Hargeisa’s independence claim.
It has been touted as a two-horse race, pitting Kulimye Party candidate Muse Bihi against opposition leader Dr Abdulrahman Mohammed’s Wadani Party.
Feisal Ali Husein of the UCID Party is also on the ballot.
This will be the country’s fourth presidential election under universal suffrage.
Bihi, has led Somaliland since 2017, but his move towards reelection is facing headwinds with massive defection by his hitherto stalwarts to the opposition Waddani, the latest being his current deputy in the presidency Abdirahman Abdillah Ismail popularly known as Saylici who declared his support for the opposition Waddani candidate Dr Abdirahman Irro on Sunday night in what has been described as a telling body blow to the president and his Kulmiye party.
The multi-party system is the pride of Somaliland’s six million inhabitants, who believe their peaceful democratic norms should earn them the international recognition they have been seeking for 33 years.
Critics accuse Bihi, a former soldier who led the fight for independence, of an authoritarian rule that has created clan divisions and led to the loss of the Sool region in 2023 after months of clashes with pro-Mogadishu forces.
There were also protests — violently suppressed by the government — after Bihi delayed the election by two years in 2022 for “technical and financial reasons”.
The campaign has often been heated — with the opposition for example accusing Bihi of dividing Somaliland — and promising to bring change in how the country has been governed.
The opposition candidate says enough is enough for the current administration.
Over 90 international observers from the United Kingdom, Africa Union and the European Union will be critical in overseeing the manner in which the nascent democracy performs in these polls, as the over 1.2 million voters cast their votes.
