ADDIS ABABA (Xinhuanet) — The Ethiopian Ministry of Information said Friday all parties are expected to accept the final outcome of the May 15 national elections, since the contending parties had ample opportunities to provide adequate information to the electorate.
In a weekly statement from the ministry, it said election campaigns in other countries last a month or two.
“From this perspective, the fact that the commencement of policy and program debates and their live transmissions in our country started in September, 2004, is of profound importance to ensure that the electorate is well informed and knowledgeable,” said the statement.
“What is left, after all, is the readiness to accept the final ruling of the electorate which has the right to empower or not.
It called on the contending political parties to exert maximum effort to improve the air time usage so as to benefit themselves and enlighten the public in the remaining time until the voting day.
The contending political parties have 487 hours air time to promote their policies and programs through radio and TV transmission. Not all political parties are making use of optimum use of the air time at their disposal, said the ministry.
Over 25.6 million Ethiopians are eligible to cast ballots in the upcoming elections to elect a national parliament and eight regional assemblies. The newly elected federal lawmakers will thenselect a prime minister.
There are 1,845 candidates representing 36 political parties and independents running for the 480 seats up for grabs in the 547-member federal parliament.
The remaining 67 MPs, who represent Ethiopia’s eastern Somalia Regional State, will be chosen in elections in August.
The national elections will be only the third democratic ballotin Ethiopia. The previous elections have been convincingly won by the ruling party.
Ethiopia has a two-house parliament: the 110-seat upper House of the Federation and the 547-seat lower House of People’s Representatives.
The Ethiopian Human Rights Council Friday released a report accusing local government and election officials of harassing members and supporters of opposition parties ahead of next month’s general elections.
The head of investigation at the Ethiopian Human Rights Council, Birhanu Tsigu, tells VOA his group has documented what he calls “election abuses and irregularities,” which he says were committed mostly by low-level government officials operating in local communities.
“Most of these abuses have been committed against members, candidates and supporters of the opposition parties,” he said. “The kinds of violations range from extra-judicial killings, unlawful imprisonments, beatings and eviction from land, and different sorts of abuses. Most of the abuses have been investigated by our investigators who have been deployed to the sites of these violations, and we do have first-hand information, first-hand evidence, on all of these incidents reported.”
The most serious incident described in Friday’s report occurred in January in the Amhara region, where, Mr. Tsigu says, two people were killed and six others injured by local government officials. Mr. Tsigu says the victims were members of an opposition party and were deliberately targeted.
Mr. Tsigu says irregularities by election officials include the granting of several voting cards to one voter. Eech person is only supposed to get one card.
Election officials, he says, have also arbitrarily forced independent candidates to change their election symbols and signs well into their campaigns.
The Ethiopian Human Rights Council has released several reports within the last few months documenting abuse.
“Our wish is that the election board, as well as others responsible government offices, will closely read these reports, and make the necessary corrections until the election day arrives, so that the election may turn out to be a free and fair election for the betterment of the country and the life of its people,” he added.
Government Spokesman Zemedkun Tekle disputes the findings of the Human Rights Council. He tells VOA, his government is committed to holding free, fair and democratic elections.
“So, everything is moving very smoothly,” he said. “However, you can hear that [criticism] from those organizations, such as the human rights organization, saying this and that. However, the reality on the ground is, any branch of the government has been told to make its best effort to be sure [of] democratic and fair and free election.”
Ethiopia’s elections are scheduled for May 15. Although about 70 opposition parties are registered with the National Election Board of Ethiopia, two in particular — the Coalition for Unity and Democracy and the Union of Ethiopian Democratic Forces — are the main contenders.
D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams and Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley teamed up yesterday to send a shipment of computers, school supplies and children’s chairs to a new youth center in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
After addressing a gathering of Ethiopian community leaders at the John A. Wilson Building in the District, the Democratic mayors led a procession of officials outside carrying a few final items to a loaded shipment container that included Post-it Notes, soccer shoes and boxes of felt-tip pens.
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Hermela Kebede, executive director of the Ethiopian Community Center on Georgia Avenue NW, said 4 million youths in Addis Ababa have been orphaned by war and HIV-AIDS. “It is very important to have a youth center in Addis Ababa,” she said. “I’m sure they will be very happy to receive these things.”
The youth center is one of six operated in war-torn cities in Africa, the West Bank and Afghanistan by the Glocal Forum, a nonprofit organization dedicated to linking cities to promote peace and economic development. Williams and O’Malley are active in the group. In February, Williams traveled to Baltimore to join O’Malley in sending a shipment of supplies to another youth center in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
Excessive transport cost is currently challenging Ethiopia, a landlocked country, and is weakening its competitiveness in the world market, UN said Wednesday.
After the loss of Assab Port ten years ago, transportation is costing Ethiopia a lot of money, it said.
Anwarul K Chowdhury, UN Under-Secretary-General told journalists that geographical constraints faced by landlocked developing countries continue to be a major constraint on their development.
“It is increasingly recognized that excessive transport costs do more damage to trade than tariffs. Half of the world’s 31 landlocked developing countries are in Africa. They are currently facing a major problem from transport costs than the payment of tariffs,” he said
Chowdhury who is also a high representative for the least developed countries said that transit transport cooperation is crucial in Africa to tackle this problem.
“UN has been undertaking efforts to implement the Almaty Program of Action for transit transport cooperation, which was adopted in 2003 at the UN conference in Almaty, Kazakhstan,” he said, adding, “the recently launched UN Millennium project report stressed that the MDG-based strategies for landlocked developing countries should be based on the implementation of the Almaty Program of Action.”
The envoy also indicated that Africa’s success or failure in trade would largely be determined by transport availability and cost.
According to him, landlocked countries, particularly in developing world experience tariffs up to four times higher than other countries.
“Their situation is further aggravated because of the inadequate infrastructure development and costly and inefficient border crossing and other procedures in their transit neighbours most of which are too poor to develop their transit system without major infusion of external assistance,” he added.
National priority for the transport sector by African countries, total debt conciliation, increasing Official Development Assistance (ODA) and opportunities for the world market are among others, which were stated as ways to tackle the problem.
Ten of the 15 landlocked countries in Africa, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic Chad, Malawi, Mali, Niger, Rwanda, and Uganda, spend up to 40 percent of their export earning for transportation and insurance services.
World Bank on its part has expressed its commitment to scale up transport development aid in the coming years.
Addis Ababa – A senior European Union election observer monitoring Ethiopia’s third-ever democratic ballot has quit after the authorities accused him of bias, an Ethiopian official said on Monday.
Siegfried Pausewang pulled out after the chair of the National Election Board said he had been unjustly critical in the past and “lacked objectivity”.
EU officials were not immediately available for comment.
Three US organisations working towards democracy in Ethiopia were kicked out last week after the government accused them of operating illegally.
All the elections have been convincingly won by the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front. The EPRDF and affiliated parties hold 519 of 548 seats in the federal parliament.
More than 25 million of Ethiopia’s 71 million people have registered to vote. Opposition parties have already accused the government of not providing a level playing field for the May 15 national elections.
Pausewang, part of a 159-strong mission and one of the largest ever fielded by the EU, arrived in the country on March 19.
He has monitored three previous elections in Ethiopia and was a United Nations observer in Eritrea in 1993 when it gained independence from Ethiopia.
Pausewang was hired as the country expert by the EU, having written at least four books on democracy in Ethiopia and teaching at the University in Addis Ababa for four years.
But Kemal Bedri, chairman of Ethiopia’s National Election Board, said he raised concerns that Pausewang arrived with “preconceived ideas” about Ethiopia.
“He was not really objective in assessing what he did,” he said. “When someone comes in as an observer I think they should be someone who doesn’t have preconceived ideas about what the whole process is about.”
Kemal said Pausewang was well known to the Ethiopian government.
“When we saw the list everybody knew him. The election board knows him. It didn’t take much investigation to know what he wrote,” Kemal said.
Ethiopian Elections 2005
Ethiopian Review special site for the May 2005 Ethiopian elections
INDEPENDENT AUDITOR’S REPORT
To The Ethiopian Community in Washington D.C. and Metropolitan Area:
I have audited the accompanying statement of revenues and expenses—cash basis of the Ethiopian National Election Campaign 2005 (the Committee) for the period ended on March 12, 2005. This financial statement is the responsibility of the Committee. My responsibility is to express an opinion on this financial statement based on my audit and to ascertain the distribution of these funds to the different political groups consistent with the Committee’s criteria.
I conducted my audit in accordance with auditing standards generally accepted in the United States of America.
INCOME STATEMENT
FOR THE PERIOD ENDED, MARCH 12, 2005
Revenue:
Ticket Sales $89,2001
Donations 51,513
Food and Beverages 2,317
Post March 12th Donations 5,900
Item sales 0
Total Sales $148,930
Expenses:
Promotion and Radio Advertisement 8,009
Convention Hall Rental and Security 5,694
Printing 2,313
Sound Systems and Video 1,710
Air Tickets 1,911
Banquet Service 1,904
Hotel 803
Other Miscellaneous Expenses 659
Insurance 140
Bank Charges for wire transfer 80
Total Expenses 23,223
Net Income $125,707
In-Kind Contributions
In-Kind contributions are the value of non-cash contributions provided by individuals, groups, and the business community. These contributions were examined and subsequently recognized since the value of the goods and services directly benefited the event. Furthermore, as part of the audit process, each in-kind contribution was valued based on the prevailing market price in the normal course of business in arms-length transaction. Famous Ethiopian musicians, poets, restaurant owners, and other individuals in all walks of life made these in-kind contributions. The proceeds from the sales of donated food and beverage totaling $2,317 is recorded in the income statement above.
Below is the listing of all in-kind contributors who provided goods (food and beverage), entertainment, and other invaluable services.
Name In-Kind contribution Value
Volunteer musicians and other artists $20,000
Voice of Ethiopian Unity 1,200
Etete Restaurant 400
Maaza Restaurant 400
Sodere Restaurant 400
Dama Restaurant 300
Dukem Restaurant 300
Lalibela Restaurant 300
Twins 200
Zelalem Enjera 75
Ergoye Enjera 50
Indipendent Auditor 1
Total In-Kind Contributions $23,626
ETHIOPIAN NATIONAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN 2005
NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENT
NOTE A – ORGANIZATION
Ethiopian National Election Campaign 2005 is volunteer-based ad hoc committee formed to generate funds through fundraising and other legitimate activities to help “qualified political organizations” financially for the upcoming national election on May 15, 2005. This committee will cease to exist once the election is over on that day.
NOTE B – SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES
Basis of Accounting
The income statement of Ethiopian National Election Campaign 2005 is prepared on the cash basis of accounting, which is a comprehensive basis of accounting other than accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. The cash basis differs from accounting principles generally accepted in the United States primarily because revenues and related assets are recognized when received rather than earned and expenses are recorded when paid not when incurred. Non-cash transactions (in-kind contributions) are not recognized in the body of the income statement.
NOTE C – Revenue
Revenue in this case includes cash and cash equivalents deposited in the Committee’s account. Below is the listing of all ticket distributions and sales for the March 12, 2005 event.
ETHIOPIAN NATIONAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN 2005
Ticket Sales # of Tickets Sales Value
Tickets printed 4,000 200,000
Unsold Tickets 2,216 110,800
Ticket Sales 1,784 89,200
NOTE D – DONATIONS
During the fundraising event at the convention center on March 12, 2005 the following donations were obtained and collected and subsequently deposited in the Committee’s account.
CASH AND CHECK CONTRIBUTIONS during the Fundraising Event
Cash Contributions 28,063.00
Check Contributions 11,620.00
Credit Card Pledges 7,630
Less: Total Rejected Amount (2,300) 5,330.00
Total Cash and Check Contributions 1,784 45,013.00
The total donations contributed at the March 12, 2005 fundraising event (cash, checks, and credit cards) was $45,013. Furthermore additional $6,500 was collected after the event. Therefore, total donated amount is $51,513 and this amount does not include any pledges made or received on any of the weekend radio programs.
NOTE F – Item Sales
As part of the fundraising activity, the participants of the event held competitive bids for donated items. A T-shirt marked “Vote or Die” donated by an individual and Neway Debebe’s famous album was purchased by an individual for a total price of $3,000 and payment was tendered by Discover Card. Due to technical problems by the Committee and unbeknown to the purchaser, the transaction was not processed. The Committee tried to contact the individual with the telephone number he provided. However, that telephone number is no longer in service and every attempt is being made to contact him.
Furthermore, a gold necklace donated during the fundraising activity was also up for bidding and sold for $1,000. The purchaser has been contacted and the proceed was never collected as of today April 3, 2005, the audit report date.
NOTE G – Promotion and Advertisement
Advertising expenses are expenses incurred and paid to the three of the major radio programs held on the weekends by the Committee to reach out the Ethiopian community in the metropolitan area. These payments were made to cover the costs of air time these radio programs pay to the owners of the station.
The following are a listing the radio programs and payments made during the period under audit:
Hager Feker Radio $2,890
Ethiopiawinet Radio 2,619
AndEthiopia Radio 2,500
Total $8,009
________________________________________
This report as been condensed by ER
