ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) — Ethiopia’s elections body on Tuesday confirmed the ruling party killed two opposition members but said claims of other attacks could not be verified.
The National Elections Board was investigating allegations by an opposition coalition that five of its members had been killed and 22 injured in attacks by ruling party members earlier this year.
The board found that some members of the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front have killed two opposition members, but has not been able to investigate other opposition claims for lack of evidence, Chairman Kemal Bedri said.
Kemal told reporters that the ruling party members responsible for the killings are in prison awaiting trial.
Kemal said that if there is widespread election-related violence then the board would postpone the elections.
Government spokesman Zemedkun Teckle said that the government wants free and fair elections and will ensure that no opposition member is harassed in the run-up to national elections set for May 15.
The general elections will be only the third democratic ballot in Ethiopia’s history, the only African country not to be colonized. The previous elections have been convincingly won by the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front.
More than 25 million of Ethiopia’s 70 million people have registered to vote. Voter registration continues until the end of February.
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) — Ethiopia’s elections body on Tuesday confirmed the ruling party killed two opposition members but said claims of other attacks could not be verified.
The National Elections Board was investigating allegations by an opposition coalition that five of its members had been killed and 22 injured in attacks by ruling party members earlier this year.
The board found that some members of the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front have killed two opposition members, but has not been able to investigate other opposition claims for lack of evidence, Chairman Kemal Bedri said.
Kemal told reporters that the ruling party members responsible for the killings are in prison awaiting trial.
Kemal said that if there is widespread election-related violence then the board would postpone the elections.
Government spokesman Zemedkun Teckle said that the government wants free and fair elections and will ensure that no opposition member is harassed in the run-up to national elections set for May 15.
The general elections will be only the third democratic ballot in Ethiopia’s history, the only African country not to be colonized. The previous elections have been convincingly won by the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front.
More than 25 million of Ethiopia’s 70 million people have registered to vote. Voter registration continues until the end of February.
ADDIS ABABA (ENA) — Registration of voters and contesting candidates across the nation was officially closed at 7 p.m. (local time) on 13 February 2005 with the exception in the Somali Regional State where the election would be held in August 2005, the office of the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) announced.
Deputy Chief of NEBE Tesfaye Mengesha told ENA on Sunday that registration documents would be sealed in the presence of election executives, public observers and political parties’ representatives.
The respective polling stations should fill in the statistical data of the registration on appropriate form by 14 February 2005, he said, adding that the registration document would be open to public the next day as per the board’s schedule. Tesfaye said the board would receive and scrutinize any inconveniences to be reported by election executives, observers or representatives of political parties.
Scrutiny of competing candidates would be undertaken across the nation on 14 and 15 February 2005 at constituencies and woreda district electoral offices. As per the programme, candidates of political parties would bear candidature symbols selected by their respective political parties while independent candidates would choose symbols on 14 and 15 February 2005, he said.
Contesting candidates for seats in both the House of People’s Representatives and regional councils would receive candidature identification cards on 16 February 2005 at the respective woreda electoral offices, the official said. The candidates may begin their election campaign on 16 February 2005 in their respective constituencies, he indicated.
He also said special registration of voters would be carried out as per the decision of the board soon as fire accident was reported in various polling stations in Dilana-Dima Woreda of the South Ethiopia Peoples State — Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples’ State, in southern Ethiopia.
According to the chief, fire accident destroyed the registration file and voters identification cards in those polling stations. The necessary documents would be sent for special registration of voters in those areas, the official noted.
The number of voters registered to cast ballots in the upcoming national elections is estimated to reach 25 million, Tesfaye said. About 30 million voters were registered in the 1992 E.C. (Ethiopian Calendar, 2000) national elections.
ADDIS ABABA (IRIN) – Ethiopia’s parliament reformed the country’s electoral law on Tuesday ahead of May’s general election, but the ruling stopped short of hopes by opposition parties.
It was the first time that the law had been amended since the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) came to power in 1991. The reform agreement was made by the EPRDF and the United Ethiopian Democratic Forces (UEDF), a 14-strong coalition of opposition groups.
However, opposition groups insisted on Wednesday the reforms did not go far enough and said they are still undecided over whether they will participate in the 15 May elections.
Merera Gudina, chairman of the UEDF, told IRIN their fundamental concerns over the impartiality of the country’s electoral commission still remained.
“The fundamental problem, the question of restructuring the electoral board, still remains,” he said. “There are some minor changes, but it has not gone far enough. We are in a dilemma over whether to participate in the election because of this problem.”
Merera said the UEDF would announce within a month whether they would challenge the government after discussions with members of the coalition group.
Tesfaye Mengesha, deputy head of the National Election Board, however rejected claims that the commission was linked to any political parties.
“We are appointed by parliament,” Tesfaye told IRIN. “We are non partisan.”
Merera said the parliament agreed to 20 changes of the 30 proposed.
Among the most significant amendments was scrapping the number of signatures required for a candidate to stand in an election. Opposition groups were also allowed the right to call meetings and stage demonstrations, while access to state-controlled airtime has also been agreed upon.
The EPRDF will get 44 percent of airtime. The two main coalition opposition groups will receive 23 percent each, while a further 10 percent will be divided up between minority parties.
The reforms came as NGOs expressed concerns that they may be excluded from monitoring the elections. A network of NGOs believe that “vague wording” in the amendments could now exclude them from the process and are now seeking government assurances.
The previous law specifically allowed for local NGOs to monitor the elections, but that has now been dropped and replaced by “people’s organisations”.
“We have reason to suspect that this amendment was probably deliberately intended to exclude NGOs from any election monitoring activity,” said an official from the Organisation for Social Justice in Ethiopia.
The UEDF coalition currently has nine members in the House of People’s Representatives, while the EPRDF has 481 members. The EPRDF, which ousted former leader Mengistu Haile Mariam in 1991 after a 17-year guerrilla war, won 481 seats in the 547-seat assembly in the last national elections in 2000. The next Ethiopian general elections are only the third democratic ballot in the country’s history.
ADDIS ABABA (IRIN) – Federal elections in one of Ethiopia’s nine regions are to be delayed until several months after the rest of the country has voted, officials said on Thursday.
Tesfaye Mengesha, deputy head of the country’s National Election Board, said the postponement of the polls in the Somali Region was due to the nomadic nature of the population and scarce resources. But the move has been criticised by some opposition groups, who called for the entire elections to be delayed while “proper preparations” are put in place.
“This is unacceptable,” said Beyene Petros, vice chairman of the 14-party opposition coalition group, the United Ethiopian Democratic Forces.
“We can see room for irregularities like double voting as people from certain parts of the country move to other areas,” he said. “The proper preparations are not there so we think the elections should be postponed.”
Somali Region in eastern Ethiopia has a population of around 3.4 million people, many of whom are nomadic herders who travel vast distances with their animals. It also shares a 1,600 km border with Somalia. An estimated 1.8 million people in the region are expected to vote.
Tesfaye said while the election was scheduled for 15 May, the polls in Somali region were likely to take place in July or August. He emphasised that the results from the rest of the country where more than 38 million people are expected to vote would be announced as scheduled on 8 June.
“Most of the people are nomadic and not settled so we have to use a mobile registration system and to apply this system we have to use huge manpower and many vehicles,” he said. “We have to finish the election process in the rest of the country and transfer the resources to Somali Region.”
Tesfaye added: “It is because of our capacity. We have no manpower. We do not have sufficient vehicles.”
The delay also caused some surprise within the international community, which is monitoring the election process and has pledged US $7
million.
The Ethiopian government has already invited election observers from Russia, China, Japan and the European Union to monitor polling. One western diplomat told IRIN: “We will be raising this with the National Election Board.”
Ethiopia’s legislative branch consists of a bicameral parliament: the 110-seat House of the Federation and the 547-seat lower chamber, the House of People’s Representatives. The general elections would be only the third democratic ballot in the country’s history.
