ADWA, Ethiopia (AFP) — Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said Sunday he would accept the verdict of his country’s 26 million voters even if he loses the hotly contested general election.
An Ethiopian woman casts her vote at a polling station in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Sunday, May 15, 2005 during the third democratic elections in Ethiopia’s 3,000-year history. (AP).

Casting his ballot in his birth town of Adwa in northern Ethiopia near the tense border with Eritrea, Meles said he would cede power if the opposition, which has complained of widespread fraud and government abuses, won.

“If the international observers say that the opposition won, we will accept the decision,” he told reporters here. “We’ll wait for the outcome of the election to be glorified by the international observers.”

Meles, 50, who has run the country since the 1991 ouster of a Soviet-backed dictatorship and is seeking a third term, said he was pleased with the massive turnout reported at the more than 30,000 polling stations around the country.

“I feel very proud,” he said. “I fought to make sure that the Ethiopian people have the right to make their own decision.”

“I’m now exercising it as an Ethiopian and I am very proud of this achievement,” Meles said.

A huge majority of Ethiopia’s 26 million registered voters turned out to cast ballots in Sunday’s contest, the impoverished Horn of Africa country’s third since Meles took power, second since the advent of multi-party politics and first with invited international observers.

Despite opposition claims of concerted government harrassment, intimidation and interference, the two main observer groups, the European Union and the US-based Carter Center said long lines and lengthy ballotting procedures were the chief problems encountered by voters.

Ethiopians go to poll to elect federal, regional legislators

ADDIS ABABA, May 15 (Xinhuanet) — Ethiopian voters went to poll on Sunday in the country’s two separate elections to elect representatives to the 547-seat House of People’s Representatives (HPR) and eight regional councils.

Polling stations nationwide opened at 6 a.m. (0300 GMT) and will close at 6 p.m. (1500 GMT).

Some 26.5 million eligible voters are expected to cast ballotsin more than 38,000 polling stations across the Horn of Africa country with a population over 74 million. Each polling station will process up to 1,500 voters.

Voters were issued with two ballot papers each, a blue one for the HPR and a green one for their regional council. They marked the ballot papers in a secret voting booth. They will elect only one among the candidates for the HPR, while the number of candidates for regional councils vary according to the number of seats in the councils.

According to electoral officials, voters who are disabled, elderly, pregnant and newly wed couples will vote in advance of others in polling stations. Blind people marked ballot papers withthe help of an individual, and explanations were provided to the hearing-impaired voters in sign language until good communication was achieved.

Voters had their thumbs marked with purple ink which couldn’t be washed off, a measure aimed at guarding against multiple voting.They put an “X” or “.” mark on the space in their ballot papers corresponding to the names and symbols of candidates who they support. The balloting was in secret and voters were not obliged to reveal who they voted for.

Elections in the southeastern Somali state will take place in August. The National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE), which is responsible for the supervision of all elections in Ethiopia’s federal and state constituencies, says the elections there have been deferred as the pastoralist way of life of the Somali people requires intensive use of NEBE’s resources.

Analysts say Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) will still command the greater number of representatives in the HPR. The EPRDF currently holds 481 of the 547 seats in parliament.

They say that with 85 percent of Ethiopia’s population living in rural communities, it is in the countryside where the elections will be decided. The ruling party has long kept its traditional power base in those communities.

However, they added opposition parties will be better represented in the HPR than previously.

Some 319 international observers have been invited into the country, the first time monitors have been allowed. The Supreme Court also backed a move by local opposition groups to field domestic observers despite a challenge by NEBE.

Ethiopia’s has a two-house parliament: the 110-seat upper House of the Federation and the 547-seat lower House of People’s Representatives.

ADDIS ABABA –– Ethiopians turned out in droves on Sunday to vote in hotly contested elections that are hoped to put the vast Horn of Africa nation known for grinding poverty and famine squarely on the path to democracy.

Masses of voters lined up in a pre-dawn chill at more than 30,000 polling stations that opened at 6:00 am (0300 GMT), which in Ethiopia’s peculiar system of timekeeping is midnight to locals, and were to close 12 hours later.

In the capital and elsewhere, long trails of the country’s 26 million registered voters snaked through streets and alleys with lengthy waits the most common complaint despite opposition claims of fraud, harassment and arrests.

In at least one Addis Ababa polling station, election observers said they found scores of ballots pre-marked with votes for the ruling party, an irregularity seized on by the opposition.

Former US president Jimmy Carter, the highest-profile of more than 300 foreign poll monitors here, reserved judgement on the complaints but said the process was moving smoothly with the exception of delays.

“So far today, we have not seen any problems of note,” he told reporters at Addis Ababa University.

“With the extremely long lines, sometimes the balloting has been slow, but everywhere we have been … once they get started my impression is that they are moving fairly rapidly,” Carter said. Voters and election officials in more than 70 polling stations in and around the capital reported small logistical hitches that in some cases caused ballotting to start late but the most common problem appeared to be long lines.

“Because the people came in such large numbers we had to start a little late,” said Bedad Tofu, a polling site chief in Mojo, 77 kilometers (45 miles) south of Addis Ababa.

“I’ve been here since 5:30 am and, as you can see, because the line is so huge that (three hours later), I am still far behind others,” said Sisay Nega, a high-school teacher on the outskirts of the capital.

“The only problem we are having is a lack of experience among some of the elderly voters,” said Adam Oumer, an election official in Debrezeit 40 kilometres from Addis Ababa. “That is time consuming because we have to explain it to them.”

Voters are choosing between Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), which has been in power for 14 years, and scores of smaller parties, including those in two main opposition groups. –– AFP

ADDIS ABABA, May 15 (AFP) — Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi on Sunday banned all demonstrations in Addis Ababa and its surrroundings for one month after elections the opposition claims were marred by widespread fraud.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi addresses supporters in Addis Ababa. (AFP).

“As of tomorrow, for the next one month no demonstrations of any sort will be allowed within the city and its environs,” he said in a nationally televised address, announcing also that all security forces in the capital would be brought under his direct command.

“As peace should be respected within the city and its environs, the government has decided to bring all the security forces, the police and the local militias, under one command accountable to the prime minister,” Meles said.

The prime minister, whose party was widely expected to win Sunday’s polls, said he had no reason to think there might be trouble but stressed that the steps he was taking were aimed at guarding against post-election violence.

“We are not expecting any big danger but as a government there is a role to play in looking after the peace and harmony of the people,” he said in response to questions posed by journalists following the announcement.

“This action is just simply a precaution to see that no one is endangered for this or that reason,” Meles said.

Ethiopia’s two main opposition groups, which have both claimed they were targets of an organized campaign of intimidation and harrassment, said earlier they believed there had been large-scale ballot fraud and threatened to boycott the election results.

By Abraham Fisseha, Matthew Lee
Agence France-Presse

ADDIS ABABA – Ethiopians prepared Saturday to go to the polls in hotly contested weekend elections as the opposition and a human rights watchdog renewed allegations of ongoing government harassment.

On the eve of Sunday’s vote, just the third since the ouster of Ethiopia’s communist “Derg” regime, the capital was calm but security was tight as heavily armed special forces and police patrolled the streets.

Although there were no fears of widespread violence, observers said there was potential for sporadic skirmishes and the opposition rejected a rosy assessement of the campaign from US president Jimmy Carter.

Despite official assurances that the poll will meet international standards, the Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRCO) and the United Ethiopian Democratic Forces (UEDF) said political arrests and intimidation were continuing.

“Even on the eve of the voting, our party observers are being arrested and denied access,” said Beyene Petros, the vice chairman of the UEDF which has refused to sign a polling day non-violence pact with the ruling party.

He told AFP that the group, which represents 14 parties, would not join the pact because the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) had only signed it as a party and not as the government.

“We have signed several documents before with the EPRDF as a party but all the intimidation and harrassment is coming from government officials, therefore there is no value in signing with the EPRDF as a party,” he said.

Ethiopia’s second main opposition umbrella organization, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD), had also initially balked at the agreement but under pressure from international donors finally signed on Saturday.

At the same time, Andargachew Tesfaye, the chief of the human rights council, told reporters that his group was being hindered from deploying 1,644 poll monitors by election authorities in violation of a court order.

He said the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia was not complying with the court decision which overturned an earlier ban by the panel on most local observers.

“This illegal measure taken by the board, whose pretexts are inexhaustible, is unacceptable,” he told a news conference.

The council “has now come to the conclusion that the board denied it permission because there is a secret it wants to hide from the public,” Andargachew said.

He also dismissed Carter’s glowing evaluation of the state of Ethiopian democracy.

“We disagree with the report attributed to former president Carter that the electoral process has been peaceful,” he said.

On Friday, Carter, the most high profile of more than 300 foreigners invited to observe the election, said Ethiopia’s democratic progress since the ouster of a Soviet-backed dictatorship in 1991 had been “extraordinary.”

He also said that contrary to opposition claims and the concerns of some other observers there was no pattern of intimidation or inteference in the election campaign by electoral authorities, the ruling party or the government.

Beyene of the UEDF said his group and the CUD had laid out specific complaints to Carter in a meeting shortly after the ex-US leader made his remarks and hoped he would modify his opinion.

“He agreed to look at our concerns and he also agreed to look at our reports of violations which can be verified,” Beyene said.

Some 26 million of Ethiopia’s 70 million poverty stricken inhabitants are registered to cast ballots for candidates in eight of nine state legislatures and 524 of the 547 parliamentary seats on Sunday.

The poll is Ethiopia’s third since Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s EPRDF came to power 14 years ago, its second since the advent of multi-party politics and the first under international scrutiny.

His party, which has a lock on at least 100 uncontested parliamentary seats, is heavily favored to win despite .

In an interview with AFP on Friday, Meles allowed that there had been some violations of the country’s electoral code but said they would not tarnish what he called an unprecedented fair and open process.

BBC – Election observers have been arrested across Ethiopia on the eve of Sunday’s poll, opposition members say.

They told a gathering in the capital, Addis Ababa, that more than 100 monitors remained in police custody. One candidate is also being held.

The Ethiopian Human Rights Council also rejected assessments that the election was largely peaceful so far.

The poll is widely seen as a test of the Ethiopian government’s willingness to bring democracy to the country.

The election is the third under Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and his ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) party.

Rural problem

The campaign has been marked by unprecedented openness, with rallies by both the government and opposition attracting hundred-of-thousands of supporters and both sides being given wide access to the media.

But human rights groups and opposition parties say there has still been widespread intimidation.

“Even on the eve of the voting, our party observers are being arrested and denied access,” Beyene Petros, vice-chairman of United Ethiopian Democratic Forces (UEDF), told the BBC.

Mr Petros said that in Konteb, in the Hadiya zone, 230km (143 miles) south of Addis Ababa, 38 observers and one election candidate had been detained.

“We are extremely distressed, having worked very hard… The reports we are receiving are only the tip of the iceberg,” Mr Petros said at a later press conference.

Observers blocked

Opposition leaders have rejected former US President Jimmy Carter’s positive assessment of the nature of campaigning.

Andargatchew Tesfaye, head of the Ethiopian Human Rights Council, said about 300 international observers were not enough to make a proper assessment.

Mr Tesfaye said he was unsure how many of the group’s 1,644 observers would be in place when polls open on Sunday.

He said that a legal challenge to the group’s right to post observers, launched by the National Electoral Board, was a deliberate delay tactic designed to prevent independent observers from reaching rural areas in time.

Speaking to the Associated Press news agency, government spokesman Zemedkun Tekle said criticism from the Ethiopian Human Rights Council was entirely expected.

“The government has repeatedly made it clear this organisation is not neutral and has already decided its verdict on the elections before it is held,” Mr Zemedkun said.