Source : Commission Européenne (europa.eu.int)
The European Commission has deployed an EU Election Observation Mission for federal and state parliamentary elections in Ethiopia. The Mission will be led by Ms Ana Gomes, Member of the European Parliament, who will travel to Addis Ababa this week to meet relevant stakeholders in the electoral process.
Commissioner Ferrero-Waldner said: “These elections represent an important moment in the wider process of democratisation in Ethiopia as well as regional stabilisation. We particularly appreciate the fact that this is the first time in the history of the country that the government of Ethiopia has invited international observers. The EU Election Observation Mission, under Ms Gomes’ leadership, will make a valuable contribution to the democratisation of Ethiopia by delivering an independent, professional and impartial assessment of the elections.”
The EU will deploy more than 160 observers to Ethiopia. This includes a core team of 9 staff which will arrive in Ethiopia on 18 March, 50 Long-Term Observers arriving in mid-April and some 100 Short-Term Observers to be deployed in early May. The mission will be present in all regions of the country and will cover the election campaign, polling and the counting of ballots up to the announcement of the official results. The total cost of the Mission is €2.810.000. The Government of Norway will support the EU Election Observation Mission by providing some long and short-term observers.
The European Parliament will also send an Observation Delegation.
The elections form an integral part of the political dialogue between the European Union, the government, opposition and civil society representatives. The European Commission and EU Member States are financing a range of activities in the electoral field including civic and voter-education programmes and the training of journalists.
ADDIS ABABA (Xinhuanet) — The National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) said Wednesday that it would study possibilities of setting up polling stations at higher learning institutions across the nation to enable students vote in the upcoming general elections.
NEBE said in a statement that Chairman of the Board Kemal Bedriand representatives of students of higher learning institutions have agreed on conducting a study on ways of setting up polling stations after discussing the issue on Wednesday.
Kemal said the Board would even opt to invite foreign experts to conduct the study.
The Board said it would facilitate conditions to enable the students cast ballots at their respective institutions.
The students’ representatives on their part said they will do their best towards the realization of the ideas put forward by theBoard.
The representatives said they have held a fruitful discussion with the Board’s chairman and have agreed on the possible ways of addressing their concern.
The national elections, scheduled to be held on May 15, will beonly the third democratic ballot in Ethiopia’s history, the only African country that had not been colonized.
The previous elections have been convincingly won by the rulingEthiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front.
Last week, NEBE said 55 political parties would be contesting in the elections.
More than 25 million of Ethiopia’s 70 million people have registered to vote. Enditem
By Nora Boustany, The Washington Post
As democratic currents flow through the nearby Middle East, Ethiopia is trying to overcome its own hurdles as a nascent democracy.
Government-backed killings of opposition party members, as well as officially sanctioned detentions, disappearances and attacks, have marred the run-up to national legislative elections in May and have compromised the democratic process that began with free elections in 2000.
And the violence is beginning to resonate in Washington.
A major Human Rights Watch report issued in January charged the Ethiopian government with continuing to “deny many of its citizens’ basic human rights.”
Describing instances of police brutality, torture and illegal detention, the report also accused the government of harassing and in some cases killing political foes.
The U.S. State Department human rights report released on Monday echoed those charges, and both documents cited harassment of and restrictions on independent journalists and publishers.
According to Human Rights Watch, “The continuous intolerance of dissent on the part of many officials raises serious concerns as to whether opposition candidates will be able to contest [the May 15] poll in an environment free of fear.”
Last week, a bipartisan House resolution was introduced by Reps. Mike Honda (D-Calif.) and Ed Royce (R-Calif.), vice chairman of the International Relations subcommittee on Africa, urging the government in Addis Ababa to address the obstacles to the democratic process. The legislation could be debated in coming weeks.
“I have introduced HR 935, legislation that offers Ethiopia the guidance, assistance and tools it needs to improve its national electoral system,” Honda said in a letter to colleagues. “The bill authorizes funding for USAID to educate Ethiopians about their democratic rights and responsibilities.”
“We really think it is going to be passed soon,” said Mesfin Mekonon, the Washington representative for the Ethiopian-American Council. Mekonon has worked for months to get the attention of American legislators.
U.S. military personnel based in Djibouti trained an Ethiopian army division in counter-terrorism two years ago; there are suspicions that extremist Islamic groups are hiding near the Somalia-Ethiopia border.
Details of Darfur Destruction
Two international humanitarian organizations have brought back dramatic reports from Sudan’s embattled Darfur region, where they detailed the wanton destruction of village life and said that the health, nourishment and safety of hundreds of thousands of Sudanese refugees across the border in Chad remain in jeopardy.
A team from one group, Physicians for Human Rights, just returned from a three-week assessment in Darfur and released a report Monday that documented what it called the intentional destruction of villagers’ livelihoods. The destruction included community support, economic structures, livestock, food production, wells and farming capacity, in addition to huts and homes that were burned to empty shells.
“What we have tried to do is document what they lost and evaluate what they need to go back. We have no magic formula, but the way things are now, they cannot go back there to live,” John Heffernan, a spokesman for the human rights group, said in an interview Monday.
Of the 13,000 residents of Furawiya, a once-prosperous village in North Darfur about 100 miles from Chad, Heffernan said there were 8,000 survivors, now living in camps in Chad with nothing to return to. He said he had conducted extensive interviews with the refugees and visited their village.
Heffernan called Furawiya a formerly “vibrant community” on which Darfurians depended for “trade, social and financial exchange, maintenance of livestock” and resources for maintaining hospitals and schools.
“If every household in this one village alone had an average of two fully grown camels valued at a minimum of $500, the loss in Furawiya of camels would be more than $2.5 million,” the group’s report said.
According to one resident who never left the village, nearly all the pre-war livestock was lost. The report quoted him as saying that 40 percent of the animals died in attacks, 20 percent were stolen or eaten by marauding Arab militia forces and the rest died of thirst, lack of fodder or neglect on the way to Chad.
According to Refugees International, another aid organization, security is still too shaky in Darfur to allow internally displaced persons to return to their villages ahead of the planting season in June and July. The organization said that food shortages extended far beyond the war-ravaged areas and that soldiers from the African Union military monitoring mission had to airlift food to some areas.
While the more than 3,000-strong African force is being credited for saving lives, Refugees International recommended a reinforcement of that mission with manpower, airfields, roads and infrastructure.
ADDIS ABABA (Xinhuanet) — Ethiopian Minister of Federal Affairs Abay Tsehaye on Saturday stressed the need for police to discharge their duties for the May 15 parliamentary elections.
The Ethiopian minister made the call here at the conclusion of a training on election code of ethics for police.
Abay said the right of police to vote should go in tune with their obligation to remain non-partisan to any political party.
He said it was imperative that police and other pertinent bodies of the judiciary serve the public equally all through the process of elections in which citizens should vote for contestants of their choice.
This is the people’s constitutional right, he said.
The training was offered to police officers, who discussed various election issues, including the experiences of the past two democratic elections.
Abay called on the trainee officers to spread the knowledge they have acquired to the police members under their respective commands.
The May 15 national elections will be 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 (Xinhuanet) — The National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) said Friday that 55 political parties would be contesting in the upcoming national elections scheduled to be held on May 15.
Mekonnen Wondimu, acting registrar of political party registration office with the board, said existing and new political parties have been certified to run for the elections.
He said 27 regional and national political parties have fielded candidates for the May elections.
Mekonnen said the contending political parties and candidates have already begun election campaign via the mass media and other platforms.
The general elections will be the third democratic ballot in the history of Ethiopia, the only African country that had not been 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 and 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.
