The Epidemic of Election Stealing in Africa
By Fekade Shewakena
There is an epidemic of election rigging and stealing in Africa but the most virulent form of the disease appears to be sitting in Ethiopia. The current sick regional and local “elections” being held in Ethiopia is only a case in the pattern. The concept and ideals of election are completely put upside down. Linguists should come out with some word to name this crap the Meles Zenawi’s of Africa call election and do some justice both to the literal meaning of the word “election” and the value civilized humanity attach to it. What do you call this kind of elections where the losers are first designated? I have seen people in democratic countries as they walk out of election booths with their heads held high and walking majestically knowing full well that their votes count towards the ownership of their governments. For Gods sakes, how can you have elections when you don’t have choices to make and even if you choose you are not sure what the authorities do with your vote? Isn’t that an oxymoron? Paradoxically, Bereket Simon, Ethiopia’s Comical Ali, is in full gear telling everyone left and right that all problems of the elections are caused by the opposition, the designated losers. I am always flabbergasted by the density of this man’s head and the boldness with which he speaks. It is like a rapist accusing his victim of making noise.
If you still have difficulty understanding what passes for a democratic election in Ethiopia these days, take this soccer analogy. Then you will know what the TPLF dictators mean by election. Say we are going to play soccer – my team and yours. I will prepare the rules of the game A to Z. I will choose the ref. you will have to agree to my right to choose some of your players or I will have the right to break the legs of some of your good players. If your players miss a near goal during the game, scaring my team, I will be given a penalty kick. You also have to agree that I have a right to order the chopping of the hands of your supporters in the stadium who clap too much and annoy me and my team. Just in case you happen to win or we come out a draw, we will have to kick 5 penalties each. Isn’t that fair? But I will kick mine from the standard spot but you will have to kick yours from the opposite end of the goal. In the end, you are required to declare to the world that the game was fair. Monday morning quarterbacking is not allowed. If you complain, I will accuse you of trying to destroy soccer as we know it and take you before a panel of judges that I chose for the purpose. If anybody asks questions about the fairness of the game or attempts to laugh at us, we all have to agree to tell them that we are living in a backward country where soccer has not yet developed and promise them we will be there in a few years. Now let’s play the game.
Those of you who know how soccer is played may be laughing at this but if you substitute democratic election in place of the soccer game, that is exactly what you have going on in Ethiopia in the name of elections. It is hardly a surprise that even the small opposition groups who make a living by deferring every rule making to the regime could not take it anymore and decided to boycott the election. But I am not sure if the boycotters understood the consequences of their actions. They seem to have forgotten they are in the game already. I am sure they will pay for it dearly. Meles Zenawi is angry that he is accusing them of working against democracy and the “constitutional order”. Bereket is coming out swinging. The TPLF tribalists are angry and are already claiming, believe it or not, that these poor opposition groups are helping Shabia and terrorists. Boycotting election or refusing to vote are not rights in Ethiopic wonderland. If you think I am exaggerating this, read what the TPLF ethnic website Aiga wrote on its editorial this week. It is the preamble of the charges to be made. They wrote the following:
“It looks more and more like “the loyal opposition” is going to take on being a front to anti-government forces as a full time job. Together with Shabia and the terrorist ONLF, these forces are forming a constellation in attempt to reach a self-fulfilling prophesy”
The National Election Board, which is an arm of Meles Zenawi’s party, has already issued a thunderous statement intimidating the boycotters. The report by Peter Heinlein of the Voice of America filed from Addis Ababa contains the following ominous report.
National Election Board Chairman Merga Bekana Wednesday accused the leader one of the country’s largest regional parties of illegally ordering an election boycott, and suggested the party could lose its legal status. He said the boycott call by Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement, or OFDM, chief Bulcha Demeksa, violated Ethiopia’s election code”…..”It is unhealthy, it is illegal, because in the middle of the game it is unfair to boycott the process of elections generally,” Merga Bekana said. “The board will take to the attention of …the issue, and the board will assess thoroughly within the legal frame and eventually declare the decision.”
Professors Beyene Petros and Merera Gudina and the good gentleman Mr. Bulcha Demeksa may have to quickly declare that they have made a mistake and find some clown who would serve as a Shimagille to go between them and Meles and peddle reconciliation before they are thrown into Kaliti. If they think there is an international community that will listen to their voices, it means they have not taken lessons from the 2005 election. The lords of poverty don’t listen to such voices.
Folks, why is it that we see a pattern of Africa’s dictators robbing their peoples’ votes in broad daylight and declare themselves winners with little exercise of shame and accountability? I see a demonstrable reason for this pattern. Deep inside their minds, all these dictators hate democratic elections like the plague. Election is a post Cold War burden, a curse if you like, on these dictators that the lords of poverty in the West demand of them to legitimize their loan, aid and the rest of the poverty industry. There are no lines the Meles Zenawi’s of Africa hesitate to cross to protect their stranglehold on power. When they tell you they are for democracy and waste your time lecturing you about it, they are simply lying though their teeth. They hate it actually. Only the most honest of Africa’s dictators do what Jean-Bédel Bokassa did in Central Africa — declare themselves emperor and lifelong rulers of their countries.
Don’t you admire this guy for his honesty? Believe me, if you scratch Meles Zenawi a little deeper, you will definitely find some form of Bokassa minus the honesty. On that scale, I also believe Isayas Afeworki of Eritrea is more honest than some of these thugs who hold elections only to spill the blood of innocent people who think their vote meant something and come back to their thrones. Afeworki should be given credit for not wasting public resources on sham elections and not spilling election related blood. Any time the goons in Addis Ababa call Isayas Afeworki a dictator I feel like puking. It is as funny as the pot calling the kettle black.
Africa’s dictators gnash their teeth at the first sight of individuals or groups who dare to challenge them on democratic elections or try to publicly criticize them. In the first place, for an opposition to say you are an equal or a better alternative than the dictators is a huge affront to their sense of entitlement. Africa’s dictators talk about democracy because they have to pretend they embrace it. In many cases they are also encouraged to pretend they do by their donors. Were you amazed when US officials could not wait until sun set to congratulate Kenya’s Kibaki the day he hastily announced his stolen victory, only to backtrack it after the people became mad and drew their machetes? One would believe that, with all the information machine at their disposal, they would be the first to know that the goon stole the votes. Please don’t tell me you are happy to see the intensity of interest and condemnations of the elections in Zimbabwe? That is not for democracy. Are you surprised as to why they hold Mugabe to a different standard and that no one even credited him for conceding defeat in the parliamentary elections, at least? The man is obviously another African shame that drove his country into the ditches, but he is a Mother Theresa compared to dictators like Meles Zenawi who butcher and imprison their opponents in mass. The amount of Western hypocrisy is simply staggering. And this is the very reason why Africans should stop looking to the West for help in building their democracies. We have to fight and earn it ourselves. I often scramble to close my ears when President Bush speaks about spreading democracy in the world. It sounds like screechy broken record to me.
There is a dangerous antidemocratic trend in Africa developing in the name of democracy and prolonging the misery of the people. The dictators are adjusting and refining their systems of tyranny. They are fine tuning their administrative and legal systems to facilitate their repressive stranglehold on power. They legislate tyranny into laws. They craft them to fit their needs and get them rubber stamped in their parliaments. Musaveni of Uganda had no problem justifying changing the constitution when he felt like extending his term limit. Parliament is like a barn for the herd of cattle and the courts operate like their kitchen.
Unlike the dictators of the seventies and the sixties, the current ones are fast learners. There is a saying in Ethiopia about comparing the previous Dictatorship of Mengistu Haile Mariam and that of Meles Zenawi. The Dergue, it is said, would kill you and parade your body for everyone to see. The Woyanes (the TPLF) would kill you in the dark and come to the funeral to make people believe that they are not the killers.
I see Ethiopia heading for darker days. It appears that Meles Zenawi has settled on his one party state proposal, that so called “developmentalist state” theory, an old crap in a new package hatched up to legitimize one party rule – a proxy for his unrepentant Albanian type of communism. There is nothing developmental in it. The goon thinks he can develop Ethiopia though government efforts, a dying notion of development. It is a kind of hallucination. Development is not as easy as dishing out concocted statistics and empty hopes. The way to develop Ethiopia is to cherish freedom and democracy. This is the only way for poor countries to break with their pasts. The way it is, Ethiopia is not attractive to its own citizens let alone to foreign investors. The only way out of our obscene poverty and institutionalized beggary is through democracy alone. There is no other way out from our conditions. None. With this stranglehold on Democracy our humiliation and grinding poverty are guaranteed to continue.
It appears Meles Zenawi has made his choice. I think the Ethiopian political elite in the opposition and the Ethiopian people have not. The flicker of light at the end of the tunnel that we hoped would be opened and bring the country together is gone. If Meles Zenawi cannot tolerate such small and weak oppositions and plays Zero-sum game with them, I don’t see how he would tolerate the existence of the larger ones. Already there are bills in parliament that are meant to decapitate potential viable opposition groups. The bills are either awaiting rubber stamping or are passed already.
I want to be wrong, but I see Ethiopia sitting on a ticking explosive. It is time for tough thinking on the part of the forces of democracy. I think the first thing we need to convince ourselves of is on the need for a comprehensive approach to the solutions. Somebody needs to pull the country’s resources and forces together to solve these problems. This is the age of information and networking. All serious opposition groups and individuals across the spectrum of ideology and ethnicity should stop this stupidity of living in their cocoons and think and debate and work and strategize together. If the problem looks complex to you, it is simply because there are as many puzzles that we as a people failed to put together. Only when we put some pieces of this puzzle together can the picture of the future become a little clearer. The tyrants in Addis Ababa must be made to think they have a problem and they will have to pay some price for their actions to bring them to their senses. They are driving the bus with their face towards the passengers.
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The writer can be reached at [email protected]
9 thoughts on “Elections and designated losers”
Impressive article. My advise, if Dr Fekade reads this, would be for Dr Fekade to pave the way in brining all the political figures in diaspora together (especially those ethnic based groups to accept democratic Ethiopia as the main domain and work with CUD officials in exile).
Very insightful article. I enjoyed reading the article,but there are many loopholes in the arguments that you make. For example, you claim democracy is the way out to Ethopia’s current problems, but you do not show how? You quoted journalist, but you did not add research to your argument. In order to claim this is the paneca for a huge problem, I think it will be helpful to your reader if you add facts and satstics that will support why democracy is the soultion to economical and political problems?
Ethiopian
Well, dear my friend Fekade, I wish you and I had seen all being said in action.but to be honest with you, we can’t change the term ” Election” in some sort of ironic ways.It is election and that’s it.The point is why election is so vital to any society? -You and I may know why it is important and may does any body else.In my opinion, people should hold the power of government through an election process and the government shold serve its people upon.As you said, it is absolutely an epidemic when we observe elections in Africa except in few countries with in Africa. I think there are many factors that hinder postive outcomes as far as election concerns but I didn’t read even some of them from your analysis in this web post. I would like to know the negative factors and solutions to solve such problems rather than posting unappropriate words, deep and agrresive personal opinions, and outdated thoughts.I personaly disagree and I don’t think the African leaders are driving the bus with their face towards the passengers but I do think there are problems in common that should be addressed in an appropriate ways.All start with first step and that is “Respect the Rule of Law.” Let me ask you Fekade, to be honest, how much You and I respect the Rule of Law back home.? I need your help to tell me the fact.
Thanks.
The reason TPLF is doing what it does because Ethiopians allow such violations to be perpetrated against them. We have seen what the Kenyans have done to get respect from their leader Moi Kibaki who lost the election but refused to step down, now the opposition with only 20% support managed to hold on to an equal power. The Ethiopian majority of 95% of the total population failed for the 5% intimidation and scare tactic to force opposition submitt early before the opposition breaks down and gives in to Weyane intimdations tactic after having many innocent protesters killed in the name of the opposition. What a difference between the Ethiopian majority and the strong unconquerable Kenyan minority.
Indeed it is a very good article. As far as the political situation in our country is concerned, I think it is a high time for all the political parties to put aside their differences and come together with the same agenda to help the nation come out of this mess. Otherwise, they will all be doomed. And indeed History will judge them harshely.
Finally the only thing that I can say to the so called “our leaders in power”, is the time will come for them to regret for what they have been doing to the entire nation. It will be too late by them.
Let us keep hope alive! God will rise to rescue our people.
God bless Ethiopia.
Hab.
As usual Fekade Shewakena writes clearly and educates us (Ethiopian) about our beloved country political turmoil.
Thanks Fekade
Born alone in unfortunate time, lonesome, cruel, and coward, Meles Nazawi, the chief of the crime family, incomparably, he is the wealthiest dictator in the continent of Africa. In Ethiopia, nearly all manufacturing, service and financial sectors are owned and run by members of the crime family.
Ethiopians are big winners. During 2005 election, millions voted for democratic leaders consequently the victory went to the overwhelming majority of Ethiopians; however, there were losers too. Those who trusted Meles Naziawi and undermined the power of the trusted population lost too.
Meles Naziawi, Professor Beyene Petros, Bulcha Demeksa, and Merera Gudina were shrewd and untrusted lost a big time. Millions of Ethiopians heard professor Beyene Petros complaining and speaking bitterly that he spent time in the Kangaroo parliament yawning and sneezing, and spoke he was bored to death. Now quitting the fake election, Professor Beyene Petros has taken a break form his yawning and sneezing and is ready to visit a doctor for his allergic pain. The question is, will he get a remedy for his planned failure of betraying the genuine leaders and the trusted public?
No future for Dr. Merera Gudina, and Bulcha Demeksa too. Because they betrayed the elected democratic leaders and millions of citizens for they collaborated with the crime boss, Meles Nazaiawi only now to be dumped and become unemployed.
The three amigos have no place in the hearts of Ethiopians as they have no any value and usefulness before the evil eyes of Meles Naziawi.
well written and inspiring for action. How ever, action is still the most important word. How can we come together for action?
Ethiopian democracy is a well-defined tyranny one should not bother to look up for a second definition in the Webster dictionary.
Some people who benefit from this type of democracy are the ones directly related to the ruling party that has introduced tyranny in the country in the name of democracy. In the old days, as the prophet Jeremiah denounced those false prophets who declared “…peace, peace…when there is no peace” in the land, unfortunately we do not have many courageous people, except some at home and many abroad, who oppose those ruling false cadres who declare: “There is democracy; there is democracy in Ethiopia,” when, in fact, there is no democracy in the country.
How can one say there is democracy in Ethiopia when one sees those who want to participate in the election are barred from participating because of their political affiliation or their ethnicities? Real election in a democratic country is an election that includes every person who wants to run for an office of his/her own choice. Here in Ethiopia, we are confronted with a false democracy that prohibits people of different ethnicities and different political organizations.
In 2005, we saw how tyranny in the name of democracy performed its ugly duty by murdering those innocent Ethiopian civilians who happened to believe in democracy without knowing they had been out numbered by the enemies of democracy and gave their precious bloods for those few democracy lovers at home and abroad.
We cannot say for sure there is real democracy in Ethiopia when the undemocratically elected Woyanne officials enrich themselves where as the common people of Ethiopia have no say to the election process and are being ruled and robbed by the people whom they have never been allowed to put their ballots for in the ballot box. Such undemocratic officials whose languages strange to the Oromo and the Amhara people are sent to rule over the Oromo and the Amhara people; then the Oromo or the Amhara people must pay some money to the person who interprets their languages to the state officials sent to rule them, and it is possible the interpreter can be bribed to twist the words of the person who would like to talk with the new officials sent by the Woyanne regime to terrorize the people, not to govern them in a democratic way.
The Woyanne regime is based on fear and terror, and Meles knows that if he introduces real democracy, he will be out of his office within few days, so he has to continue terrorizing his people so that they can be submissive to him for a long, long time. The clear indication that Meles does not want to share power with other people is that most of the highest offices in Ethiopia have been held by his relatives for many years without the approval of the Ethiopian people. The reason he gave those high offices to his relatives is fear of the other Ethiopian people – fear that tells him to surround himself with his own people whom he trust – people who do not follow the rule of democracy are preferred to those who follow the true democracy.
Meles is abhorrent to the rule of democracy because he knows he has come to power without tough competition, and if he introduces real democracy in Ethiopia, he knows there are more educated and more qualified people than him to run Ethiopia in a democratic way; therefore, he will never, ever, bring real democracy to Ethiopia unless it is “on his dead body” because he knows the benefit, the power, the comfort, and the joy that tyranny has given him so far in the name of democracy, so why change tyranny into real democracy when he knows that real democracy treats him equally with the common people while tyranny isolates him from the poor Ethiopian peasants and puts him in a kingly throne.
From the time he took office until now, Meles Seitanawi has known the difference between tyranny and real democracy, and his political advisors have clearly told him never to run a real election; if he does, he will lose. Real election is part of real democracy, and deceptive election is part of tyranny, so Meles chose deceptive election rather than the real one; therefore he continues to deceive his own people and the people of the world, especially the United States and the European Union by telling them that he is for democracy and for the rule of law.
The Ethiopian people, especially the Oromo, the Amhara, and the Ogaden people know from their experiences the type of democracy they have been under for almost seventeen years is Adolf Hitler’s terror of reign – tyranny, not democracy. For example, does democracy allow a Woyanne soldier who claims he believes in democracy put a rope around a young girl’s neck and drag her to die? I cannot write all the cruelties that most of the Ethiopian people have been under in the name of democracy; in Ethiopia, the name of democracy has been tarnished more than undemocratic African countries.
A democratic person never claims to stay in power for life, but in the case of some African leaders, the evidence that they want to stay in power for ever is clear, starting from Emperor Haile Selassie to the present ruler of Ethiopia – Meles Seitanawi. Haile Selassie was over eighty years old, and Robert Mugabe is eighty-four years old, and they both refused to give power to the young, and I think Meles Seitanawi has in his mind something that tells him to stay in power like what King Haile Selassie did. He well knows the Ethiopian people are used to be ruled for forty or fifty years by one person, whatever bad or good the ruling conditions are under that person.
However, having known all the facts without realizing the consequences of those rulers who waited longer and finally dragged down from their palaces and killed by their own people, Meles Seitanawi has preferred to take the risks for holding political offices to relinquishing his power to another Ethiopian right now, so he will continue to fool the Ethiopian people in the name of democracy, but it is a mystery how he is able to deceive the west, particularly the United States and the European Union.
More or less, the western countries don’t care what is going on in Africa as far as they have been occupied by the Iraq and the Afghanistan war, and they don’t even care about the terrorists’ threats. Of course, the United States is still hunting the terrorists wherever they are, be they in the Middle East, Pakistan, or the Horn of Africa. So, any country that supports the United States in the war against terrorists is not suspicious of abusing human rights according to the United States State Department. The United States knows that there is no real democracy in Ethiopia, and that Meles Seitanawi is a dictator that does not allow fair elections in his country; however, at this time, as far as Meles is helping the United States by crushing the suspected Slummiest terrorists in Somalia and is continuing to be a friend of the United States, America gives deaf ears to the Ethiopians here and at home who cry for the real democracy and the rule of law tin heir country, Ethiopia. But one waits for a while until America finds the smallest errors Meles may commit knowingly or unknowingly against the United States foreign policy; then Meles is gone, and America may reward Meles an asylum in the United States for his previous friendship with America against terrorism.
In the mean time, one wonders what kind of democracy the Ethiopian democracy is; to find out to what type of democracy the Ethiopian democracy belongs to, one examines all types of democracy in the world and comes up with one similar to the type of democracy in Ethiopia. For sure, Ethiopian democracy is not a representative, a parliamentary, a liberal, a direct, a socialist, an anarchist, a consensus, and an Iroquois democracy. What is it then if it is not any one of the above? Take your breath, and I will tell you.
The type of democracy in Ethiopia is a “democracy without actual election,” which is called “sortion,” and we have seen Meles and his political gangs randomly choose certain people to the offices of their choices, thinking these people would meet the interests of the other people; they assume they will be unbiased and more “fair than the elected officials.” The truth is, however, they will be fairer to their political parties than to the common people who have never elected them.