Opposition candidate defeats Somaliland's incumbent president The presidential candidate of the opposition party in the breakaway regio...

 Opposition candidate defeats Somaliland's incumbent president

The presidential candidate of the opposition party in the breakaway region of Somaliland, Abdirahman Mohamed Abdillahi (Irro), defeated the incumbent president, Muse Bihi Abdi, in the election, the country's electoral commission announced on Tuesday.

The opposition party leader, Waddani - Abdirahman, won 63.92 percent of the vote, while President Bihi won 34.81 percent, the commission announced.

Abdirahman Irro was born in Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland, on April 29, 1955, where he attended primary school in Somalia and then went to college in the United States, where he earned a master's degree in business administration.

Irro worked as a diplomat at the Somali embassy in Moscow, where he began his diplomatic career at the Somali Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1981.

During the 1991 Somali civil war, he served as Somalia's acting ambassador to the former Soviet Union.

He later moved to Finland, where he lived with his family until he obtained citizenship.

Irro first entered Somaliland politics in 2002, with the UCID party.

He served as the speaker of the Somaliland parliament for 12 years from 2005.

Irro founded the Waddani party in 2012, and ran for president in 2017, but lost to Muse Bihi Abdi.

He ran again that year, defeating the incumbent.

Somaliland has been a self-declared state since it declared independence from Somalia in 1991.

However, it is still not recognized as an independent state by any country in the world, limiting its access to foreign funding and making it difficult for its six million people to travel.