LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Somaliland: Somaliland President
built 628 days ago
Somaliland has formed a hybrid system of governance under the Constitution of Somaliland, combining traditional and western institutions. In a series of inter-clan conferences, culminating in the Boorama Conference in 1993, a qabil (clan or community) system of government was constructed, which consisted of an Executive, with a President, Vice President, and Council of Ministers, a bicameral Legislature, and an independent judiciary. The traditional Somali council of elders (guurti) was incorporated into the governance structure and formed the upper house, responsible for selecting a President as well as managing internal conflicts. Government became in essence a "power-sharing coalition of Somaliland's main clans", with seats in the Upper and Lower houses proportionally allocated to clans according to a predetermined formula. In 2002, after several extensions of this interim government, Somaliland finally made the transition to multi-party democracy, with district council elections contested by six parties, considered the most peaceful in Africa for twenty years.[4]
Source:
Somaliland has taken a number of steps that demonstrate all the attributes of an independent state. It has a functioning constitutional democracy where the president, the parliament and the local councils are elected through a process of fair and free elections. On 31 May 2001, 97% of Somalilanders voted for independence. It ... has its own currency, passports, a vibrant private sector, functioning and profitable airlines, and excellent relationships with its neighbours.
Source:
Throughout the 1990s, Somaliland was governed by the Council of Elders and Muhammad Ibrahim Egal, a president elected by the council. Democratization was delayed by a civil war during the mid-1990s, but a transitional constitution was adopted in 1997, and parliamentary elections were subsequently held. A constitutional convention continued to meet with the goal of facilitating Somaliland's transition from a tribally-based republic to a democracy, and the final draft of a permanent constitution was completed in 2000. In May 2001, the constitution was approved by 97 percent of the voters in a referendum that was generally regarded as free and fair by international observers, although there were some reported irregularities in the Sool region and the vote may have been more an endorsement of independence than the constitution as such.
Source:
The Central Committee of the SNM assembled in Burao in May 1991 and declared unilaterally that northwest Somalia would henceforth become the independent Republic of Somaliland. The SNM named Abdirahman Ahmed Ali "Tur" as interim president for two years. Near the end of his term, the 150-member Council of Elders began meeting in Borama to determine the political future of Somaliland. They expanded the representation at Borama to some 500 persons representing elders, religious leaders, politicians, retired civil servants, intellectuals, businessmen, and others. They agreed to establish an executive president and a bicameral legislature. These traditional leaders of Somaliland then elected Mohammed Ibrahim Egal, the onetime prime minister of the Somali Republic, as president of the Republic of Somaliland in 1993.
Source:
The Somaliland parliament has issued a press statement about the unlawful arrests of the three members who founded the new political party named Qaran, which the government considers illegal. However, instead of bringing the president to book for his flagrant violation of basic civil liberties, the legislators peppered their statement with the usual mantra: everyone is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, no one is above the law and so on. Well, the legislators are living in a cloud-cuckoo-land and seem to be suffering a terrifying amnesia.
Source:
In the middle of 1993 Leonard Kapungu, deputy UN representative in Mogadishu, arrived in Somaliland (which had not been involved in the armed UNOSOM intervention) with an astonishing plan. Just as in the good old days of the Berlin Conference, the foreign powers had decided to divide up the country. The UN was "offering" the newly elected president, Muhammad Ibrahim Egal, control of the Issaq region, "assigning" the regions occupied by other clans to various clan militias outside the country which their exiled representatives in Nairobi or London had managed to persuade the international community represented the local population. This astonishing scheme would inevitably lead to a renewal of clan conflict. Mr Kapungu was politely sent away to exercise his diplomatic skills elsewhere. Even so the episode has left behind a strong distrust of international "good intentions".
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Somaliland President