ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) — An international human rights group said Monday that Ethiopia’s national election was marred by repression and intimidation, while the government said the vote was free and fair.
New York-based Human Rights Watch said Sunday’s parliamentary vote was corrupted by pre-election irregularities that included telling voters they could lose food assistance, public-sector jobs, loans, and educational opportunities if they voted against the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front.
“Behind an orderly facade, the government pressured, intimidated and threatened Ethiopian voters,” said Rona Peligal, acting Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Whatever the results, the most salient feature of this election was the months of repression preceding it.”
European Union observers said Sunday’s vote was peaceful and that more than 70 percent of the 32 million registered voters took to the polls. Ethiopian election officials said they witnessed no irregularities, but opposition officials complained of vote-rigging and intimidation on election day.
Government spokesman Bereket Simon said the election was free and fair.
“It is sad to hear that while the election officials have said Ethiopians voted in a democratic way, Human Rights Watch, which has nothing to do with the election observation, is declaring our election fraudulent,” he said. “But the good thing is the people of Ethiopia have voted and no one is going to take their vote away from them.”
Election officials said they would release provisional results as early as late Monday, and final results in late June.
Analysts have predicted an easy win for the ruling party led by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, a U.S. ally now poised to enter a second decade of power after he seized control of the Horn of Africa country in a 1991 coup.
EU observers said Sunday that they received reports of irregularities, both of a technical nature and from candidates and opposition groups. They said they will release a report Tuesday with details of the irregularities that were reported to them.
Sunday’s vote was closely watched by international observers after a contentious 2005 election.
That year, a then-energetic opposition won an unprecedented number of parliamentary seats in this country of 85 million, only to endure police crackdowns and the killing of 193 demonstrators after the votes were counted.
Since 2005, the opposition and some analysts say the government has systematically stifled the competition, and ensured an uneventful election by enacting restrictive laws that restrict aid groups from working on human rights issues and hinder the media.
While the ruling party and election officials have said the election would be free and fair, Ethiopia is frequently criticized for its human rights record, including by the U.S. State Department, which in a March report cited reports of “unlawful killings, torture, beating, abuse and mistreatment of detainees and opposition supporters by security forces, often acting with evident impunity.”
Still, the U.S. considers Ethiopia an ally. Both countries want to curb Islamist extremism in Somalia, Ethiopia’s unstable neighbor to the east. Ethiopia is reliant on billions of dollars of foreign aid, most of it from the U.S.
2 thoughts on “Ethiopia election marred by repression, intimidation – HRW”
Dear all opposition parties, supporters etc,
We, the enlightend, have said time and again that this is going to be a fake election, re-affirming TPLF for another 5 year slavery. Regardless, you went for it and we respect your will and actions.
Dear Readers, on reflection …
The first thing the opposition parties should have (all parties) done was to rally around the cause of Judge Birtukan Mideksa and force the EPRDF to release her before the election, as there has been no reason for her re-arrest.
Opposition parties were so scared because they thought that her popularity would undermine their aspirations, which aspirations were based on false assumptions – i.e. that they will re-gain their seats in parliament or be elected for parliament and voice people’s concerns.
The “Prof Mesfin-ZIM ANELIM” group is another distraction for MEDREK, Prof Mesfin’s group has been playing well for the EPRDF media.
The so called pre-election and elections day intimidations and harassments are, by default, bi-products of the EPRDF monopoly of power, weaknesses of the opposition groups to cave in to whatever Zenawi imposes on them etc. The oppositions groups could have been more united, wise and tactical to deal with the one-party-state rule/domination, like in 2005.
Now that the Election is flawed, undemocratic, unfair and fake all parties must come together and jointly declare that it is null/void
Dear Yoseph,
I don’t even know where to start here, since you are full of contradictions and misinformation. Let me start from the end. In order for the opposition to demand that this election be considered null and void, they should have boycotted it since they have been voicing the irregularities, intimidation, arrest and killings for over a year now. But no, despite all these facts and misgivings they chose to participate, demoralizing their members and supporters. That is all I have to say about the ill fated “Coalition for Convenience” that you call MEDREK.
Let’s go back to ANDNET. Gizachew Shiferaw, after the stunning defeat to his bid for the chairmanship of the party, unofficially resigned and was AWOL from everything ANDNET for over six months. The problem: he was not going to be lead by a young person and ‘a woman at that’ whocould be his daughter. The day after he heard that Judge Birtukan was arrested again, he jumped to the foray and tried to portray himself as the voice of the party and assured everyone that he will do anything and everything to secure her prompt release. However, it is emerges now, thanks to the ZIM-ANELEM crowd, that behind the scene, Gizachew was ready to throw Birtukan under the bus, walk over her dead body and grab the mantle of power (if you call the leadership of ANDNET that). The idea that Birtukan’s arrest was a private civil matter between her and the judicial system and has nothing to do with the party was his brain child; propagated by the hapless Asrat Tasse and not so wise Dr. Hailu Araya.
Now Gizachew and his cohorts, that has been peddling MEDREK and this election, could try to backpedal their betrayal of Birtukan and what she stood for, and cling to her name for their political survival. But I can tell you one thing though, walking backwards is a very tiring business.
Going back to the election, why participate in something that you have been lauding as fake and rigged beyond repair in the first place? Maybe these people lost fair and square this time around. You know, Ethiopians have been so fed up with this fake opposition politicians like Merera, Beyene, Lidetu, Temesgen, Ayele etc. maybe they just didn’t vote for them. A couple of weeks agao I was talking to a friend in Addis and all of a sudden Hailu Shawel was on TV talking about God know what. When I asked him what his standing was in the eye of the public, he told me that Ethiopians would rather put pins in their eyes than vote for Hailu Shawl this time around. Maybe Hailu Shawl lost fair and square this time around, as a punishment for betraying the martyrs of June and November 2006. It is the BOW, stupid!
Respectfully,
-Surafel