Ethiopia’s electoral board and several opposition parties are trading accusations of illegal actions as the country prepares for the second phase of municipal council and parliamentary by-elections. VOA’s Peter Heinlein in Addis Ababa reports that as opposition groups battle election officials, Prime Minister dictator Meles Zenawi’s party is poised for a landslide.
Three members of Ethiopia’s National Election Board held an unusual news conference Wednesday amid increasing doubts about the credibility of the local elections being held nationwide.
National Election Board Chairman Merga Bekana Wednesday accused the leader one of the country’s largest regional parties of illegally ordering an election boycott, and suggested the party could lose its legal status. He said the boycott call by Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement, or OFDM, chief Bulcha Demeksa, violated Ethiopia’s election code.
“It is unhealthy, it is illegal, because in the middle of the game it is unfair to boycott the process of elections generally,” Merga Bekana said. “The board will take to the attention of …the issue, and the board will assess thoroughly within the legal frame and eventually declare the decision.”
In ordering his party to boycott, Bulcha accused the election board and ruling party officials of vote rigging, harassment and intimidation in the first phase. He said conditions were such that his party, a significant force in Ethiopia’s most populous Oromiya region, had failed to win a single seat.
“Our hopes and aspirations for democracy have been dashed, and at this moment we appeal to our members, supporters and the people of Ethiopia in general to support us in our peaceful struggle against this emerging absolutism and disregard for the supremacy of the law,” said Bulcha Demeksa.
Bulcha accused election board officials of creating conditions to ensure victory for Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s party, which is expected to win control of local councils across the country, and to increase its parliamentary majority. He also alleged that voter turnout figures had been grossly inflated.
Speaking to reporters Wednesday, election board chief Merga stood by his estimate of a 90 percent first round turnout, despite eyewitness reports of empty polling stations in Addis Ababa. He also rejected opposition charges of ballot box stuffing.
“As far as the board is concerned, it is just a fabrication,” said Merga. “There is no evidence for that. We have thoroughly discussed about the issue together with his excellency, Ato [[Mr.] Bulcha. We have attempted to solve the problems, and we have solved many of the problems. But when there is no evidence, it is very difficult for the board to solve what they are claiming, so we consider as fabrication.”
A third political party announced Wednesday it will join the election boycott. Kedafo Aidahis, leader of the pro-government Afar Liberation Front told VOA his regional party would withdraw to protest alleged vote rigging.
Even before the boycott calls, independent observers said the election rules had created favorable conditions for a sweep by Prime Minister Meles’s Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front. In a statement issued before the first round, the U.S. based Human Rights Watch said Ethiopian government repression of the opposition had largely prevented political competition.
OFDM chief Bulcha warned Wednesday that Ethiopia is heading towards one-party rule. But election board officials scoffed at the idea. They noted there are still nearly 30 opposition parties participating in next Sunday’s vote.
Political observers here noted that unlike 2005, there are no indications of election related unrest. Post-election demonstrations against alleged vote rigging in 2005 erupted into violence that left 200 people dead and led to the arrest of 30,000 people, including many opposition political leaders.
The Patriarch of Egypt’s Orthodox Church, Pope Shenouda III, had visited Ethiopia over the weekend and told Ato Gebremedhin (formerly Aba Paulos) that he and other officials of the church are holding office to serve the people, to be responsible for their wellbeing, not to have authority over them.
The Pope, who is loved and respected by Ethiopian Christians, was received at the Bole Airport on Friday, April 11, by the fake pope, Aba Gebremedhin, who is a Woyanne cadre.
Ethiopia’s legitimate patriarch is currently in exile after being forced out of the country by the gun-totting former Aba Paulos.
On Sunday, Ato Gebremedhin took Pope Shenouda to Holy Trinity Cathedral Church in Addis Ababa. It was here that Egypt’s Pope chided Ato Gebremedhin by reminding him that he is a servant of the people, and that when people are abused, become hungry, and poor, “you religious leaders have the responsibility to act.”
Pope Shenouda also said church officials must always remember that they are holding office to serve the people, not for the sake of having authority over the people. The thousands of people who were at the church responded to the pope’s comment with laud cheers and gestures of appreciation. That might have been an uncomfortable moment for the Woyanne cadre and real estate developer posing as Ethiopia’s pope.
Pope Shenouda also said that Mengisu Hailemariam had disrupted the historical and close relationship between the Ethiopian and the Egyptian Orthodox churches, but, he added, “God bless him where he is.” The audience erupted in loud cheers and applause, it seems, just to let the current rulers know that they are worse than the Derg.
The pope spoke in English as Mulugeta Asrate-Kassa translated to Amharic. But most people understood what the Pope was saying and did not wait for the tongue-tied translator to react to his sermon.
The 84-year old Pope Shenouda is the spiritual leader of Egypt’s 9.5 million Orthodox Christians.
ADDIS ABABA – Holoager Kasa gathers her older children around her. Subalo is 7 and Bainchjlem is 5. The three-month old, Dastayo, is fastened in a carrier on her back. They are dressed for the final stretch of their voyage.
In the last 10 days, Kasa has been staying with some 50 other Ethiopians in a small compound near the Israeli Embassy in Addis Ababa. In two hours they will board the bus that will take them to the airport.
Her husband, Tafso, is out making last-minute purchases. Holoager’s delicate face registers incomprehension when asked how she obtained a permit to go to Israel. “I have two brothers and sisters and an uncle in Israel,” she says. “One of them applied for me, and five years ago I was called to Gondar for an interview.”
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She does not know where her Israeli relatives live or where she is supposed to stay once she arrives, but they told her it was near Jerusalem. She doesn’t speak a word of Hebrew and the only thing she knows about Judaism is Sabbath, but she knows that in the past her family was Jewish.
Tafso is Christian, but his wife says that he agreed to covert to Judaism in Israel, and this made their trip possible. Asked what she expects in Israel, she says, “I don’t know. I just want a good life.”
She will miss nothing from her life in Ethiopia.
Kasa’s family is one of the last to leave Ethiopia for Israel. Only 474 Falashmura with permits to immigrate to Israel remain in Gondar – eight more flights. The Jewish Agency office in Addis Ababa is to be shut at the beginning of June. More immigrants to Israel have passed through this office in recent years than through any other Jewish Agency office in the world – 300 a month, 4,600 a year.
“However, throughout 2007 we brought only one woman to Israel,” says Jewish Agency envoy Uri Conforti.
He says that 95 percent of the immigrants to Israel in recent years have been Jews according to the halakha, while the rest have Jewish parents or grandparents. The former receive a blue immigrant card on arrival, and that is replaced by an identity card a few days later. The others receive a green immigrant card, and only after a year and a half are they eligible for citizenship, after converting to Judaism. Then they also receive their Israeli housing grants and be eligible to vote.
The Ethiopians are a calm, reserved people. Unlike immigrants from the West, they don’t sing Hebrew songs, wave flags, kiss the holy soil and weep when they arrive. They have already been through a complex process to get to this point. They have waited for a long time, sometimes years, before receiving a date to report to the Jewish Agency’s compound at Gondar. They are photographed for the travel card, interviewed about their medical condition, briefed about travel arrangments to Addis Ababa, the capital, and receive an allowance for expenses and lodging on the way. Every Sunday a busload of immigrants, accompanied by paramedics and an armed guard, leaves the compound.
The immigration candidates are sent to a private hospital for x-rays of their lungs, to make sure they don’t have tuberculosis. If they do, their trip to Israel is delayed for preliminary medical treatment. In a clinic operating out of the embassy compound, the immigrants are vaccinated against various diseases. Their medical files will be sent to an Israeli health maintenance organizations (HMO).
The would-be immigrants are shown films to prepare them for life in Israel. They learn what a toilet bowl, refrigerator, stove and disposable diapers are, as well as how to open a bank account and what an HMO and absorption grants are.
At the airport’s entrance, they are briefed about regular stairs and moving stairs, the latter of which they are warned not to use, to avoid accidents. They sit quietly by the gate. Nobody goes to shop in the duty free. The immigrants are afraid to use the toilets on the planes and the Jewish Agency envoy makes sure they all go to the airport toilet before the flight.
On the Ethiopian Airlines plane they are seated in the back, by the galley. Holoager and Tafso are enjoying every moment of this once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Once they have landed at Ben-Gurion airport, the mothers are led to a diaper-changing corner. The rest are ushered into small rooms, sign for immigrant cards and receive their first immigrant grant, based on the size of their family.
The biggest opposition party that participated in Ethiopia’s nationwide elections Sunday is planning to boycott the second part of the voting, charging the first half was rigged. Another, larger opposition group had pulled out even before the first vote. VOA’s Peter Heinlein in Addis Ababa reports the withdrawal of the two largest opposition factions would clear the way for Ethiopia’s ruling party to take control of local councils nationwide, and to increase its majority in parliament.
The leadership of the Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement voted Monday to join a boycott when Ethiopia votes in critical municipal elections next Sunday.
The OFDM had been the largest opposition party participating last Sunday, as Ethiopians voted for the first time since 2005, when post-election protests turned deadly. Two hundred people were killed in the violence, and thousands were jailed, including most opposition leaders.
OFDM leader Bulcha Demeksa says his party had decided not to join the boycott for the first part of the vote.
But Monday, he accused election officials and the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front of massive intimidation and rigging, and said his party would join the boycott.
“We went in for the sake of peace and stability in our country,” said Bulcha Demeksa. “We did not want to be the cause of any crisis. But when the government shows no willingness to cooperate, and wants to be the only party which governs ethiopia, then we have no hope. We cannot work with this kind of party. We have to quit and show the world we are not able to work with them.”
Bulcha says preliminary results indicate his party did not win a single race Sunday in which it entered a candidate. Official results were not immediately available, but reports from political leaders indicate the ruling EPRDF and its allies won huge majorities.
Bulcha told VOA his party was not just defeated, but obliterated. He says as a result, he may be silenced in parliament because he no longer commands the minimum ten seats necessary to be considered a party.
He accused the EPRDF of using the elections as a means of instituting one-party rule in Ethiopia.
“This is happening because the EPRDF wants to be the only party ruling Ethiopia,” said Bulcha. “We’ve heard it. They’ve said they believe in the so-called dominant party. They want through semi-legal means to eliminate all the political parties in Ethiopia and remain the only political party that keeps power in Ethiopia.”
National Election Board office chief Tesfaye Mengesha told VOA Monday that Sunday’s turnout compared well with the 2005 vote. He said 24 million had cast ballots. It is not clear what percentage of the voting age population that represents, because there is no current census information available for Ethiopia, but the total voting age population is estimated to be roughly 40 million.
VOA reporters found polling stations nearly empty for the most part, but election board official Tesfaye attributed that to the addition of thousands of new locations that made voting faster.
The Chief of the Political Bureau of the EPRDF, Bereket Simon, on Monday expressed general satisfaction with the election. He declined further comment until results are announced. Asked when results could be expected, he quipped, “it will be quicker than in Zimbabwe.”
Earlier, Bereket denied there had been any intimidation or vote-rigging. He said the election board had investigated opposition complaints and found them to be without merit.
Prime Minister Dictator Meles Zenawi’s EPRDF is almost certain to sweep next Sunday’s elections, too. The party fielded nearly four million candidates for about 3.8 million positions being contested. The 32 opposition parties combined were able to register only a few thousand candidates. Opposition leaders complained in advance that as many as 98 percent of their prospective candidates had been rejected by election officials.
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – Ethiopia Woyanne blamed rebels backed by arch-foe Eritrea on Tuesday after two bombs killed three people and wounded more than a dozen in the capital.
The attacks in Addis Ababa late on Monday came a day after the nation held the first round of local, regional and federal elections that have prompted opposition claims of harassment.
“This is the work of the enemy, trying to disrupt Ethiopia’s ongoing democratic elections,” Information Minister Berhan Hailu told Reuters. No arrests have been made yet, police said.
Ethiopian state media said the explosions tore through two petrol stations in the city at the same time, killing and wounding residents who were queuing to buy fuel. Bloodstains and charred clothing lay at the scene of one of the blasts.
Bereket Simon, special adviser to Prime Minister dictator Meles Zenawi, blamed the attacks on separatist rebels.
“The early stages of our investigation indicate that organisations like the Ogaden National Liberation Front and the Oromo Liberation Front, who are organised and financed by the Eritrean government, are responsible,” he told Reuters.
The government has often blamed rebels backed by Asmara for attacks in the past. Eritrea routinely rejects the charges.
(Additional reporting by Tsegaye Tadesse; Writing by Lisa Ntungicimpaye; Editing by Daniel Wallis)
A halo around the sun startled people in Ethiopia during Sunday’s local elections, with many seeing it as a miracle or a sign from God.
The ring of light caused by sunlight refracted by ice crystals hung in the sky for almost an hour before it finally faded and disappeared.
Some Ethiopians say it last appeared in 1991 before a military regime fell.
But the BBC’s Elizabeth Blunt in Addis Ababa says there is little chance it could augur change this time.
She says the overwhelming majority of candidates are from the government party.
Churchgoers who had flocked to see the visiting Patriarch of Alexandria, Pope Shenouda, acclaimed the phenomenon as a miracle, or at least a sign of a blessing from God.
Pope Shenouda himself believed it was a signal from above.
“We accept any sign from God to encourage us in our way,” he said, “and confirm that we are going right in our way.”
Abuna Paulos Ato Gebremedhin, the Patriarch of Ethiopia Woyanne cadre, added his voice to those who believe in signs from God.
“If God reveals himself from the sky,” he told a press conference, “we believers do not get surprised. We only rejoice and double our efforts to thank God. Thank you, God, for revealing a sign.”
Dictatorship
But others looked for more secular implications.
Older people in Addis Ababa remember seeing the ring around the sun once before – in the last days of the Derg, the despised military dictatorship, just before its leader Mengistu Haile Mariam fled to Zimbabwe.
But there is little prospect of the government falling in these elections.
The opposition winners of the controversial elections in 2005 in urban areas never took their seats and did not stand again.
The most successful of the other opposition parties pulled out, complaining of intimidation and our correspondent says the results are almost certain to consolidate the ruling party’s hold on power.
Results have not been published yet but an election official said turnout had been massive.
The Patriarch of Egypt’s Orthodox Church, Pope Shenouda III, had visited Ethiopia over the weekend and told Ato Gebremedhin (formerly Aba Paulos) that he and other officials of the church are holding office to serve the people, to be responsible for their wellbeing, not to have authority over them. 