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.
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – Ethiopia’s Genet Getaneh produced the greatest upset in the short four-year history of the Toyota Great Ethiopian Run, setting a new course record to win the women’s title in this morning’s race.
The 10km road race was run in the Ethiopian capital, in the presence of the Ethiopian State President Meles Zenawi, Addis Ababa City Mayor Arkebe Equbay, and IAAF President Lamine Diack.
In the men’s race, Abebe Dinkessa took advantage of the last minute withdrawal of Ethiopian Olympic 10,000m silver medallist Sileshi Sihine to win his first Great Ethiopian Run title.
WOMEN – Getaneh takes major scalps
There were also some last minute withdrawals from the women’s race as Olympic 10,000m silver medallist Ejegayehou Dibaba, like her male counterpart Sileshi Sihine, chose not to take part in this road race in order to concentrate on her preparations for the cross country season.
However, that did little to dampen the spirits of more than 150 women elite runners headed by the likes of Teyiba Erkesso (World Cross short course bronze silver medallist) and African 5000m champion Eyerusalem Kuma.
Despite alternating the lead between themselves, Kuma and Erkesso eventually had no answer to the killer pace of the little-known Genet Getaneh, who overtook the duo with one kilometre to go before the finish. She won the race and set a new course record time of 34:18, sixteen seconds better than the previous mark set by Werknesh Kidane in 2002.
Erkesso came second in 34:30, while Kuma (34:33) was a close third as the top three runners went under Kidane’s previous record time of 34:34.
The win is a big improvement for Getaneh who finished sixteenth in last year’s race. The 20-year said that she was delighted to have got the better of her more illustrious opponents. “It was great to win this race,” she said. “However, I planned my own tactics for this race and ran without any pressure.”
Getaneh was part of the Ethiopian team that won the Yokohama Ekiden in January 2004 in her only race outside Ethiopian soil, but admits that winning the women’s race here is arguably the greatest achievement of her short career.
“Running in Japan was great, but I can say that I am happier by my win here,” she confirmed.
MEN – Dinkessa’s killer sprint wipes out the opposition
In the men’s race, Ethiopia’s African 10,000m silver medallist Abebe Dinkessa was just three seconds short of breaking the course record. He won in a time of 29:57, beating Zenbaba Yigezu and Maeregu Zewde who occupied the other places on the medal podium.
After a frantic start, with the 20,000 field only calmed thanks to an appeal from Haile Gebrselassie, a small group of ten runners passed the 2km with little-known Roba Gebre leading them in 5:20. He kept a hold on the race until six kilometres with Dinkessa, Zewde, Z.Yigezu, and Abdissa Sorry, all in close contention.
The leading group eventually dwindled to eight runners with Gebre maintaining his place at the front followed be Zewde, Dinkessa, Z. Yigezu, and Gabo Burka, with Sorry the first to leave the pack.
Dinkessa made the decisive break at the 7.5km mark with only Gebre staying with him as the pair opened a gap of 20 metres on the other six runners. Then as the pair went up a small uphill, Dinkessa produced a killer sprint that Gebre could not handle.
Dinkessa passed 8kms in 22:15 extending his lead to 40m as he continued to accelerate towards the finish line. Gebre, second until 8kms, was caught by Z. Yigezu and Zewde as the pair went past him to try and catch Dinkessa.
But this was Dinkessa’s day, and he crossed the line in a reasonable time of 29:57, with Yegezu coming just four seconds adrift in second, and Zewde, Ethiopia’s African 5000m champion, coming in third.
Dinkessa had run the 12km longest leg to help the Ethiopian team win the men’s race at the Chiba Ekiden last Tuesday, but did not feel any effects of that run. “Considering that I had to run the longest leg and waste two days flying back here, I am very happy with the result,” he said. “The weather was a bit difficult, but I have managed to win.”
He added that his decisive break after 7kms came very naturally. “The uphill at 7kms helped me to sprint clear because I usually run very well climbing up hills,” he said. “I am suffering from a knee injury which prevented me from accelerating at the finish, but I am satisfied. I could have bettered the course record if I had not slowed down after 8kms.”
Elshadai Negash for the IAAF
2004 TOYOTA Great Ethiopian Run
Official Results
Position – Name – Club – Time
Men
1 Abebe Dinkessa Prisons 29:57
2 Zenbaba Yegezu Prisons 30:01
3 Maeregu Zewde Prisons 30:04
4 Gebo Burka Prisons 30:09
5 Lishan Yigezu St. George 30:13
6 Alene Emere Defense 30:20
7 Solomon Tsige St. George 30:23
8 Solomon Molla Banks 30:24
9 Roba Gebre Unity College 30:26
10 Abate Atafetegne Negash 30:27
Women
1 Genet Getaneh Prisons 34:18
2 Teyiba Erkesso Prisons 34:30
3 Eyerusalem Kuma Prisons 34:33
4 Teke Gelaneh Oromiya Prisons 34:36
5 Amani Godana Muger 34:47
6 Adanech Zekiros Prisons 34:48
7 Emebet Beta Amodias 34:49
8 Aheza Kiros EEPCO 34:56
9 Meron Negassa Yenegew Sew 35:05
10 Asnaketch Mengistu Oromiya Prisons 35:14
