Hargeisa (SD) – Somaliland’s opposition parties Waddani and UCID have today announced the official candidates for the post of Speaker and Deputy Speakers of the House of Representatives of Somaliland.

The opposition coalition says it has nominated Abdirizak Khalif Ahmed, a member of parliament from the main opposition party Waddani, from Las Anod, the regional capital of Sool, as Speaker of the House of Representatives.

The Coalition of the Opposition Parties also nominated Omar Jama Farah, from Sanaag and Ali Hamud Jibril from Awdal both members of the UCID party, as Deputy Speakers of the House of Representatives.

Lawmaker Ali Hamud Jibril said the coalition was not to be perceived as a disruption or is targeting anyone in particular, but rather, this means that the Executive and the Legislature will be in balance.

The opposition parties have won the majority of mayors and deputies in the country’s major cities, and they are now on the verge of taking over the leadership of the House of Representatives of Somaliland.

The ruling Kulmiye party, meanwhile, is vying for the post of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, nominating the former Somaliland Foreign Minister Yassin Haji Mohamud Hiir Faraton, also from Sool Region.

However, the prediction is that the opposition parties Waddani and UCID will win the leadership of the House of Representatives of Somaliland, since the opposition coalition has 52 MP’s out of the 82 members of the House of Representatives.