Somaliland's elections - Not so failing

A long-delayed presidential poll in a country that does not officially exist

Jul 1st 2010 | HARGEISA

SINCE 1991 Somalia has routinely been labelled “the world’s most failed state”. Yet its north-west bit, Somaliland, once a British protectorate that merged with Italian Somalia to form unified Somalia in 1960, actually feels like a proper country. Although poor and underdeveloped, it is free of the south’s scourges, such as piracy, warring militias and Islamist extremism. The streets of Hargeisa, the dusty and tumbledown capital, hum with construction work and mobile-phone chatter.
Somaliland is pushing for international recognition and has been building a democratic state. In 2003 it held a presidential election, then a parliamentary one in 2005. On June 26th the 50th anniversary of the end of the British protectorate, a second presidential poll took place, marked with enthusiasm and little violence by its 1.07m registered voters (from a population of around 2.5m). It is hard to imagine that happening in Somalia.
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