Northern Somali Unionist
Movement (NSUM)

Somaliland's Bogus Election
Press Release
June 28, 2010

The over - hyped presidential election in the one-clan based secessionist enclave calling itself Somaliland, otherwise the NW region of Somalia, is more than a race for the post among the competing candidates. It is above all a well-organised show to con the international community for recognition. Its message is that here in the enclave, peace and democracy prevail and free and fair elections can take place anywhere in contrast to the never- ending strife bedevilling war-torn southern Somalia. Their endgame is that a successful election could at last deliver that elusive recognition they had been vainly striving for the past 19 years since they declared their secession. Just to make sure their case is heard loud and clear, they have lined up the BBC Somali Service as their mouthpiece trumpeting their propaganda, and secondly they brought in selected sympathetic "international observers", many of them members of the area's Diaspora living abroad, who are expected to rubber stamp the election as free and fair and confer legitimacy to all the attendant post-election fanfare.

Aided by the BBC Somali Service, which kept a news blackout on the occupied unionist regions of Sool, Sanaag and Cayn (SSC), a central pillar of Somaliland's election propaganda blitz was to send the international community a false picture that this was an election which took place in every region of what they claim as their country (former British Somaliland) in which its people share common aspirations, notably the secession from Somalia. Nothing could be further from the truth. Unfortunately for them, no amount of spinning and one-sided news reporting with the help of the BBC Somali Service can for long suppress the truth. And the incontestable facts are that the unionist SSC people are not only adamantly opposed to the secession but have fought tooth and nail to forbid the sham ballot boxes to be brought to their regions; not that any SSC people were willing to vote except for few paid up mercenaries but because the presence of these boxes and the voting of Somaliland militia in the area, masquerading as locals, could have offered photo opportunity to send the wrong picture from the area in order to hoodwink the international community.

The humiliating disaster that the secessionists met in the occupied SSC regions was always predictable but, as usual, the secessionists are victims of their deeply embedded fantasies and delusions that things will always work out their way. The final verdict on this election is that this was an election held for one clan inhabiting in less than half of the NW regions, while the rest of the territory, and notably the SSC regions, had nothing to do with it. Any recognition that ignores these facts will only add fuel to inflame Somalia's civil war and would bring no stability anywhere including the NW region.

If there is one thing that the secessionists have correctly understood, it is that the SSC regions are the bridge that bound together northern and southern Somalia. Remove that bridge and Somalia would break up into its pre-independence two separate parts. That is why doing away with that bridge by occupying the SSC regions has been the core strategy of the secessionists. As such, the struggle the SSC people are waging is not merely to liberate their area from the secessionist's occupation. Above all, it is a sacrifice they are making for Somalia in order to defend its unity and territorial integrity. Rather than supporting their noble and gallant struggle, it is painful to hear Somalia's TFG president, Sheik Shariff, sending congratulations to Somaliland for its electoral gimmick, forgetting that this is after all a rebel entity sworn to destroy Somalia's unity and which for that purpose is occupying other regions of Somalia. With a president like this, who needs secessionist enemies? God help Somalia.

NSUM,
Executive Committee
Web: www.n-sum.org
Email:admin@n-sum.org

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Northern Somali Unionist Movement (NSUM) is a grass roots Somali organization whose members and supporters hail from Sool, Sanaag and Cayn regions in the Northern regions of Somalia(formerly British Somaliland)  and whose clan in these regions do not identify with the one -clan-driven secession calling themselves” Somaliland”. NSUM stands for the promotion of peace and unity among the long-suffering people of Somalia.

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