ADDIS ABABA: The European Union yesterday expressed concern over reports of “harassment” in the Horn of Africa nation, ahead of general elections scheduled for next month, officials said.

“Reports of harassment, imprisonment, and other activities of intimidation are worrysome,” said Rob Vermas, the Dutch ambassador, representing the EU in Ethiopia, while welcoming about 50 EU observers who arrived on Friday.

EU officials said the decision by the Ethiopian government on March 30 to expel three US democracy groups, the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and the International Republican Institute (IRI) was disappointing.

“The recent issuance of a directive on local observers is disappointing,” Vermas explained.

“The NEBE’s (state-run National Election Board of Ethiopia) directives will virtually exclude many local NGOs (non-governmental organisations) from observing the election,” Vermas explained.

The election will be the third since the governing EPRDF’s Prime Minister Meles Zenawi came to power in 1991. It will, however, be the first in Ethiopia to be held under international scrutiny amid complaints that local observers have been unfairly denied access.

About 100 more EU election observers are expected to arrive on May 10.

Vermas spoke a day after Ethiopia’s Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) claimed that nine of its members had been arrested since March 26 in acts that amounted to harassment in Hadiya Zone, about 360km south of the capital Addis Ababa. – AFP