Waddani party chairman Abdirahman Irro officially handed over control of the party to Hirsi Ali Haji Hassan who was elected at the 2nd Congress on November 15-16, 2021.
Mr. Abdirahman Mohamed Abdillahi Irro, welcomed this morning the newly elected chairman of the Somaliland National Party, better known as Waddani, in his office based in Hargeisa.
This is an unprecedented action in Somaliland dominated by clan tensions during the handover of power.
Irro, whose party won most of Somaliland’s parliamentary seat in 2021, wants to run in the 2022 presidential elections.
Many believe he has a good chance of beating the incumbent Musa Bihi whose tenure has been marred by corruption, nepotism and abuse of power.
For some, this latest move by the Waddani party heralds an era in which Somali leaders would give young politicians a chance and peacefully pass the buck. Irro was until now the only Waddani chairman since he founded the party in 2012.
For others, it is a political calculation intended to woo certain sub-clans, within the dominant “central clan”, which has broken away from the ruling Kulmiye party.
Hirsi Ali, who was very controversial in former president Silanyo’s cabinet, himself defected from Kulmiye because of his hostility to the current president of Somaliland.
It goes without saying that his selection as the new chairman of Waddani is strongly contested within the party.
In any case, this decision made react the immutable Faysal Ali Warabe, leader of the UCID party, who today began to reshuffle the top leadership of the party.
The separatist region has limited its political space to just three parties from the same ruling clan. The difference between the parts is more on the form than on the substance.
In elections, all candidates, regardless of their clan, must be registered under one of these parties, whether or not they agree with their platform, as no independent candidate is allowed.
The quasi-autonomous northern region, whose administration is based Hargeisa, has declared an illegal secession during the Somali civil war and wants to be treated as a separate entity from the rest of Somalia.
