SOMALILAND
:
The triumvirate in Parliament
Three candidates from two opposition parties (UCID and
Kulmiye) were elected to the posts of Speaker and First and Second Deputy
Speaker of Parliament in Hargeisa this week The governing party, the
UDUB, which has a minority in Parliament, finally accepted this vote, not
without reluctance.
The new Speaker of the Hargeisa Parliament, Abdirahman
Mohamed Abdillahi - Irro is one of the founders of the UCID and a former
diplomat. He has been first counsellor at the Somalian embassy in Moscow
(1989-91), and later charged the affaires in the same embassy after the
downfall of President Siad Barre until 1996. He subsequently settled in
Finland where he worked (1998-2000) at the International Office of
Migration (IMO) in Helsinki. He is also CEO of Alkayr Construction Company
in Hargeisa.
The First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Abdilasis Mohamed
Samale, is one of the founders of Kulmiye and a moderate Muslim scholar. A
graduate of the Technical Training School in Burao and the Lafole College
of Education, he has taught in several countries. He had almost completed
his MBA in Mogadishu when he was expelled for political reasons and
obliged to settle in the Yemen. There, he was chairman of the local
section of the Somalia National Movement (SNM). Subsequently, Samale
contributed to the foundation of several schools and training centres in Somaliland
(University of Hargeisa, Ilays Secondary School, Integrated Adult
Education Centre).
The second Deputy Speaker, Bashe Mohamed Farah, is a
Kulmiye militant who has lived in Canada where he was active among the
Somalian Diaspora. A teacher by training, he has worked in schools in
Mogadishu and Merca, as well as at the Ministry of Education, before being
sent to the former USSR for trade union training. He subsequently left the
trade union movement and went into business after undergoing training in
the Lebanon and Canada in tourism and transport. When the Somalian
government nationalised private companies in 1972, the Farah family had to
relocate its maritime transport company to Tanzania
Source: INDIAN
OCEAN NEWSLETTER
