Hargeisa (SD) – Officials from Somaliland’s opposition parties say they have been denied access to candidates arrested yesterday by the authorities.

The Somaliland government yesterday arrested Abdillahi Hassan Hirsi, Ibrahim Abdi Hussein of the UCID party and Qasim Adan Saleban of Wadani party.

Candidate Ibrahim Abdi Hussein, secretary of religion and endowments for the UCID party, is running in the Marodijeh region, while Abdillahi Hassan Hirsi is running in the Sahil region.

Candidate Qasim Adan Saleban is running for the Wadani opposition party in the Sool region, and there are pictures of him with some Somali government officials circulating on social media in recent days.

Officials from the Wadani opposition party say they have been denied access to prisoner Qasim Adan Saleban.

Abdinasir Qodah, the deputy secretary general of the opposition UCID party, called the arrest of UCID candidates illegal and called on the electoral commission to intervene.

Somaliland government has detained a number of candidates since the election campaign began, and some have since been released without charges.

The arrest of these candidates from the opposition parties comes less than 40 days before the election.