ADDIS ABABA (IRIN) – The head of the National Election Board (NEB) on 24 June urged government and opposition parties in Ethiopia to ensure “free and fair” elections next year.

Asefa Biru, the NEB executive secretary, told IRIN that his organisation “will insist government closely cooperate with the election board to take measures when any official or overzealous cadre interferes”. The polls are expected to be held in May 2005, but both the government and the opposition are already gearing up to contest.

Some 38 million people are expected to vote in 547 constituencies, costing the country US $5.2 million. Sixty-seven opposition groups are expected to challenge the government, which holds 88 percent of the seats in the country’s parliament.

In the 2000 election, observers from embassies in the capital, Addis Ababa, said the national elections, while generally free and fair, had been marred by irregularities in the south of the country.

Asefa said voter education would ensure fair elections and that the NEB – which comprises seven independent officials – was training election officers. He dismissed criticisms levelled at him by opposition groups that he was “not independent” because he had been appointed by parliament and was too closely linked to the ruling party, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front.

He also rejected calls for the participation of international election observers, whom he described as “tourists”, saying they often had little understanding of the country and its languages. “Elections are a long process that don’t just start in the morning and finish in the evening. Often people who come don’t have the experience of the country,” he said, noting that he was also “reluctant” to accept funding from foreign governments to support elections in the country.

“An election that is run by foreign aid is not sustainable, because a certain standard would be set with fanciful election materials, and if that support does not continue, then the next election would be considered substandard,” Asefa said. “The integrity of the process would be in jeopardy.”

He also rejected criticism that using government officials to run an election – a method which places elections in Ethiopia amongst the cheapest in the world – could threaten the outcome. “Just because they are government officials one cannot assume they will be partial to the government,” he said.