Breakaway Somaliland's opposition leader wins presidential poll

 Wadani party presidential candidate Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi, also known as Irro, (C) casts his vote at a polling station during the 2024 Somaliland presidential election in Hargeisa on November 13, 2024. [AFP]

Somaliland's opposition leader has won the presidency of the breakaway region of Somalia, according to election results released Tuesday, an outcome that signalled a rejection of the establishment and a call for change.

The territory's decades-long push for international recognition is likely to be a top priority when Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi, popularly known as "Irro", takes office next month.

His election victory also comes against a backdrop of high tensions in the Horn of Africa over a maritime deal between Somaliland and Ethiopia that has enraged Somalia.

About 1.2 million people were registered to vote on November 13, in a poll that international observers hailed as a display of Somaliland's peaceful democracy.

Irro, leader of the Waddani National Party, won 63.92 percent of the vote, election commission chairman Muse Hassan Yusuf announced.

He was well ahead of outgoing president Muse Bihi of the Kulmiye party with 34.81 percent, while Social Justice Party (UCID) leader Faysal Ali Warabe was a distant third with 0.74 percent.

"We are all winners, the Somaliland state won," Irro said in a speech after the results were announced.

"We are in a day when all of us are obliged to be united for the development of our nation... today our talk is us, citizens of the nation of Somaliland republic in unity."

He is due to be sworn in on December 14.

 Unifying figure

Irro is a former ambassador of Somalia to the Soviet Union and Finland in the 1980s and a long-time speaker of the Somaliland parliament.

The 68-year-old has offered few concrete policy changes but says he will be a more unifying figure than Bihi who he accuses of having divided Somaliland.

He claims Bihi fomented clan divisions that led to the loss of part of the Sool region, when Somaliland forces withdrew in 2023 after several months of fighting against a pro-Mogadishu militia.

Bihi agreed the controversial deal with Ethiopia at the beginning of the year, offering the landlocked nation a lease on 20 kilometres (12 miles) of Somaliland's coastline for a port and a military base.

He says Ethiopia offered to recognise Somaliland in return, though this has never been confirmed by Addis Ababa and full details of the agreement have not been made public.

The memorandum of understanding has aroused fury in Somalia, sparking a verbal and military escalation with Ethiopia that has alarmed the region and the international community.

Ethiopia's foreign ministry was among the first to offer congratulations, and in a statement on X lauded both Bihi and Irro for "the exemplary democratic statesmanship they have exhibited".

"The ministry wishes the incoming administration success in its endeavours," it added, without mentioning the deal with Somaliland.

Somalia's President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud also issued congratulations and said his government wanted to continue reconciliation talks with Somaliland, according to state media.

The self-proclaimed republic, which enjoys a strategic position on the Gulf of Aden, has its own money, passports and army.

But since its unilateral declaration of independence in 1991, it has grappled with decades of isolation.

Its lack of international recognition has hampered access to foreign loans, aid and investment, and the region remains deeply impoverished.