what the ACT OF UNION really said.

[Liqaye]

III. On Unification

 

 

A. The Report insinuates that the North was cheated because the Union Act was not properly and legally consummated. In the language of the ICG document:

 

[T]he precipitate nature of the union had also left a number of legal

 

questions pending. The two acts of union approved by the respective

 

legislatures differed somewhat and no single legal document actually

 

bound the two territories. The new national assembly recognized the

 

error and passed a new act of union in January 1961, retroactive to the

 

moment of independence, but some observers have argued that since

 

the two territories were legally united, the new Act remained without

 

force in the north.6

 

 

 

It is important to identify that the observers quoted in the previous sentence were consultants hired in 1992 by the regional administration in Hargeisa.7 It is also noteworthy to contrast such a claim with what Paolo Contini, the chief legal advisor to the new Somali Republic, wrote in his book in 1969:

 

The decision to form a union was reached at a conference of Northern

 

and Southern Somali leaders held in Mogadishu between April 16 and 22,

 

1960. A joint communiqué issued at the end of the conference announced

 

it had been agreed that the two territories would be united on July 1, 1960;

 

the new Somali Republic would be unitary, democratic and parliamentary

 

State; the legislative bodies of the two territories would be merged into a

 

National Assembly which would be set up 'in order to investigate and

 

propose convenient solutions to the problems connected with the

 

administrative, financial and judicial systems now in force in the two

 

Territories'; the United Nations would be asked 'to supply experts who

 

may help in accelerating the integration of the two Territories'. …

 

On June 27, the day after independence, Somaliland's legislative Assembly

 

passed 'The Union of Somaliland and Somalia Law,' incorporating the

 

proposed Act of Union previously sent to Mogadishu. Section 1(a) stated

 

that 'The State of Somaliland and the State of Somalia do hereby unite and

 

shall forever remain united in a new, independent, democratic, unitary

 

republic the name of which shall be the SOMALI REPUBLIC.

 

 

 

Contini adds:

 

 

 

There is no doubt that on the first of July a full and lawful union was

 

formed by the will of the people of the two territories through their elected

 

representatives. However, the legal formalities had not been completed in

 

time… the matter was clarified seven months later by the adoption of the

 

new Act of Union with retroactive effect as from July 1, 1960 for the whole

 

of the Republic.8

 

 

 

The Union Act reads exactly as the Somaliland legislature wrote it. Another related matter the ICG Report misrepresents is how the constitution of the new Republic was developed. The fact is that Italian Somaliland, the United Nation’s Trusteeship, had an earlier start in constitution making than the British territory. Despite this, there were consultations between the leaders of the two regions, and United Nations experts assisted in the endeavor. The draft constitution was given to visiting northern leaders to review it and make changes as they saw fit. The Northerners liked the document and added only two articles (88 and 89). These additions dealt with public employees and mandated the creation of an independent public service commission, points incorporated into the document. The new parliament vetted the draft constitution which triggered public debate, particularly after the document was read, article by article, over the two national broadcasting stations: Radio Hargeisa and Mogadishu. Then came the constitutional plebiscite in 1961. Nearly three-fourths of the Republic’s voting population endorsed the constitution, with opposition limited to areas of the northern region centered on the Hargeisa, Burao, and Berbera triangle. This opposition accounted for nearly 52% of the northern region’s voting population, but areas west of Hargeisa and east of Burao overwhelmingly supported the constitution and there was a significant minority of voters in Hargeisa-Berbera-Burao coordinates that cast an affirmative endorsement. The plebiscite marked the state’s commitment to democratic rule, as it did not attempt to gerrymander the northern vote in order to manufacture artificial support for the charter in the North. This approach was reinforced by the impeccable way the parliamentary and local election of 1964 was conducted. Africa Report characterized the election as free and fair.9 Unfortunately, it will be the last election (including the recent ones in the North-Somaliland) where all contestants played by the rules

[Gabbal]

Then came the constitutional plebiscite in 1961. Nearly three-fourths of the Republic’s voting population endorsed the constitution

So what I'm reading is that the "Landers" assertion that "Somaliland" didn't endorse the union because of the fact that the majority (52%) of northerners voted against it is not accurate, because the vote was counted by the citizens of the Republic and not of a single region.

[Saxardiid]

Huuganka

This opposition accounted for nearly 52% of the northern region’s voting population,

is this indorsing the union then?

[Gabbal]

Read my post Sooyaal.

[Saxardiid]

horn

how someone can count the whole country anless you count region by region. so could you tell me how 52% no union vote come about please?

[AYOUB]

^^^^Very good question Sooyaal, the 'union' was conditional to Somalilanders endorsing the constitution with a 'YES' majority vote.

 

there was a significant minority of voters in Hargeisa-Berbera-Burao coordinates that cast an affirmative endorsement.

A significant minority is still a MINORITY.

 

If Somalilanders' vote against the constitution does not matter, what is the point of them voting anyway?

[Gabbal]

I guess Somalis everywhere are held hostage by greedy leaders then, Ayoub and Oodweyne. Egal, Tour, Riyaale, and others were all part of the former administration, so "Landers" too were held hostage then yaah? By their elected leaders noh? Not just the Mogadishu governments as alleged.

 

We Somalis as a whole have a leadership problem Maybe we need to have a Politics 101 class from first grade on up in every school in Somalia

[Saxardiid]

Subsequently and more pertinently, consequentially to this day, there had been no legal "Act of Union" nor a legitimate "Constitution" ratified in both jurisdictional entities of --Somaliland State and the State of Somalia--,

i think that is why the people of the Somaliland never accepted the union and never seen the first Republic as ligitimate one. what i think is that politicians of both sides of the border let thier people down by rushig the unity of the two independent states. Had they took thier time and let their prespective people discuss and vote the issue we would have been better off union or no union.