ADDIS ABABA – Less than a day before Ethiopia holds its third parliamentary elections in 14 years, a domestic human rights group says it strongly disagrees with reports by European Union and American observers that say the electoral process has been mostly fair and transparent.
Members of the Addis Ababa-based Ethiopian Human Rights Council told reporters Saturday that the group is dismayed by news that European Union officials and members of the Carter Center have praised the work of the country’s National Election Board.
The strongest endorsement of the board has come from former President Jimmy Carter, who arrived in the capital late Thursday to lead the Carter Center’s 50 member delegation of observers.
Mr. Carter said that, based on preliminary evidence, he found the National Election Board to be honest and fair. On Saturday, Ethiopian Human Rights Council chairman, Andargatchew Tesfaye, angrily challenged the former president’s views.
“He has been here how many hours? It is not just Mr. Carter, but others also. [They] arrive in the morning. They see officials in the afternoon and they claim that everything is okay. But it has not been okay. I wish they would leave it to us or go around and investigate the situation thoroughly,” he said.
Mr. Andargatchew’s group charges that the National Election Board, which is supposed to be independent and non-partisan, is blatantly pro-government and has acted only in the interest of securing a government victory at the polls.
Last month, the National Election Board changed the rules for fielding domestic observers, which effectively disqualified thousands of potential monitors. More recently, the board has been accused of using delay tactics for observers to obtain the necessary permits.
The Ethiopian Human Rights Council, along with other civic groups, says it believes the board’s decisions were part of a deliberate campaign by the government to keep thousands of observers out of polling stations.
The opposition has complained that far too few observers have been accredited to ensure fair voting at all 31,000 polling stations across the country.
Board officials have denied charges that they are interfering in the electoral process. They counter that it is the Ethiopian Human Rights Council, which is showing partisanship by being vehemently anti-government.
Sunday’s elections will mark the first time Ethiopian voters will go to the polls amid international scrutiny. More than 300 international observers, including 150 from the European Union and 50 from the United States, have been invited by the government and the opposition to monitor the voting.
Elections were held in 1995 and again in 2000, in which Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s ruling coalition won an overwhelming numbers of seats in the lower house of parliament.
This time, Ethiopia’s fragmented opposition has put aside their differences to form the strongest challenge yet to the government.
The ballot is being closely watched in Washington, which counts Ethiopia as a key ally in its war against terror. The country occupies a strategic location in the Horn of Africa, where Muslim radicals are believed to be recruiting and planning new attacks.
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.
Addis Ababa – Ethiopia on Tuesday dismissed as “lies” a highly critical report from a leading human rights watchdog accusing the government of suppresing alternative voices and committing numerous abuses.
“These are the same old stories, this report is a bunch of lies that is politically motivated,” information minister Berekat Simon said of the findings presented by the New York-based Human Rights Watch.
“It is not a credible organisation,” said Berekat, who also serves as spokesperson for the campaign of the ruling Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) in Sunday’s upcoming general election.
Earlier on Tuesday, five days before the polls, HRW accused the Ethiopian government and ruling party of muzzling dissent and harassing and detaining people perceived as political foes in the country’s southern Oromia state.
The 44-page report accused the government of having intensified its clampdown during the run-up to the election.
The country’s main opposition umbrella group, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD), has also criticised the government for failing to uphold the rule of law by intimidating, torturing and even killing its supporters.
Washington – It is hard to see democracy expanding throughout Africa if a populous nation like Ethiopia — a country of enormous political and strategic importance for the African continent — drifts toward “corrupt authoritarianism,” says Dave Peterson, Africa program director of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).
Peterson told a May 5 hearing of the House Subcommittee on Africa that is looking into political stability in the Horn of Africa region that with parliamentary elections set for May 15, “democracy is in Ethiopia’s own best interest and the U.S. needs to help.”
Peterson said NED is doing its part by funding initiatives to train people at the grassroots level in democracy issues. “So far this year we have made $312,213 in grants for projects in Ethiopia, and we intend to allocate an additional $160,000 by the end of the year with special funds approved by the Congress,” he said.
He told lawmakers, “There can be no doubt that Ethiopia is far better off in terms of respect for human rights, political pluralism, free press and economic policies than – at any other time in its history.” But the expulsion just before the elections of three other democracy NGOs — the National Democratic Institute (NDI), the International Republican Institute (IRI) and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) — was an unjustified and arbitrary act that is cause for concern, he said.
Time is running out for the institutes that specialize in training election officials at the grassroots level, Peterson said, adding, “We hope the Ethiopian government will soon reverse its decision.”
In general, Peterson said, “I think it is worthwhile for the United States to continue to press Ethiopia to allow greater openness. I do not think Ethiopia can afford the luxury of taking a lot of time in its democratic development. Nor do I believe that its poverty should be considered an insuperable obstacle to freedom.”
Peterson contradicted the argument by some officials that Ethiopians do not want or need reforms: “On the contrary, our experience in Ethiopia has suggested that its citizens understand and desire democracy, and that many of the country’s political and economic problems may be more readily addressed in a more open and democratic system.”
With Ethiopia on the verge of either joining the community of democratic nations or stagnating into a kind of corrupt authoritarianism, reform is critical in this second most populous nation in Africa, Peterson said. “It becomes so important now to invest strategically in the country and tip the balance in the right direction,” he said.
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Donald Yamamoto also said the fate of the NGOs was “troubling and confusing, especially since it is the first time these organizations have been expelled from any country.”
He told lawmakers: “Their expulsion on the eve of parliamentary elections raises questions about that process. It also raises questions about the government’s commitment to real, meaningful democratic reforms and the development of truly democratic institutions.”
Contrary to the claim by the Ethiopian government that the NGOs did not follow proper procedures for registration, Yamamoto said the U.S. government made a formal response to the Ethiopian government “noting in detail the actions of these organizations to file the appropriate documents with various Ethiopian governmental authorities.”
“These organizations did not enter into Ethiopia surreptitiously,” Yamamoto said. “They acted with the full knowledge and in full sight of the government.” Therefore, “we have asked the government to allow these reputable organizations to return to Ethiopia to continue their important capacity-building work in advance of the election.”
Asked by Representative Donald Payne (Democrat of New Jersey) why the Ethiopian government was allowing The Carter Center to monitor the election and not the others, Yamamoto said he could not answer that question. But Subcommittee Chairman Christopher Smith (Republican of New Jersey) jumped in to say that it might be a belief that The Carter Center would be less critical in its evaluation of the electoral process.
Referring to the expulsions, Smith told the hearing: “Today, a number of colleagues joined me in sending a letter to Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, urging him to rescind the expulsion of three American NGOs helping to build democracy. … For the sake of continuing democratic progress in Ethiopia, we hope the prime minister will respond positively to our request.”
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Source: United States Department of State
The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: usinfo.state.gov
Democracy endowment’s Peterson tells Congress U.S. should press for change
By Jim Fisher-Thompson, Washington File Staff Writer
Washington – It is hard to see democracy expanding throughout Africa if a populous nation like Ethiopia — a country of enormous political and strategic importance for the African continent — drifts toward “corrupt authoritarianism,” says Dave Peterson, Africa program director of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).
Peterson told a May 5 hearing of the House Subcommittee on Africa that is looking into political stability in the Horn of Africa region that with parliamentary elections set for May 15, “democracy is in Ethiopia’s own best interest and the U.S. needs to help.”
Peterson said NED is doing its part by funding initiatives to train people at the grassroots level in democracy issues. “So far this year we have made $312,213 in grants for projects in Ethiopia, and we intend to allocate an additional $160,000 by the end of the year with special funds approved by the Congress,” he said.
He told lawmakers, “There can be no doubt that Ethiopia is far better off in terms of respect for human rights, political pluralism, free press and economic policies than – at any other time in its history.” But the expulsion just before the elections of three other democracy NGOs — the National Democratic Institute (NDI), the International Republican Institute (IRI) and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) — was an unjustified and arbitrary act that is cause for concern, he said.
Time is running out for the institutes that specialize in training election officials at the grassroots level, Peterson said, adding, “We hope the Ethiopian government will soon reverse its decision.”
In general, Peterson said, “I think it is worthwhile for the United States to continue to press Ethiopia to allow greater openness. I do not think Ethiopia can afford the luxury of taking a lot of time in its democratic development. Nor do I believe that its poverty should be considered an insuperable obstacle to freedom.”
Peterson contradicted the argument by some officials that Ethiopians do not want or need reforms: “On the contrary, our experience in Ethiopia has suggested that its citizens understand and desire democracy, and that many of the country’s political and economic problems may be more readily addressed in a more open and democratic system.”
With Ethiopia on the verge of either joining the community of democratic nations or stagnating into a kind of corrupt authoritarianism, reform is critical in this second most populous nation in Africa, Peterson said. “It becomes so important now to invest strategically in the country and tip the balance in the right direction,” he said.
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Donald Yamamoto also said the fate of the NGOs was “troubling and confusing, especially since it is the first time these organizations have been expelled from any country.”
He told lawmakers: “Their expulsion on the eve of parliamentary elections raises questions about that process. It also raises questions about the government’s commitment to real, meaningful democratic reforms and the development of truly democratic institutions.”
Contrary to the claim by the Ethiopian government that the NGOs did not follow proper procedures for registration, Yamamoto said the U.S. government made a formal response to the Ethiopian government “noting in detail the actions of these organizations to file the appropriate documents with various Ethiopian governmental authorities.”
“These organizations did not enter into Ethiopia surreptitiously,” Yamamoto said. “They acted with the full knowledge and in full sight of the government.” Therefore, “we have asked the government to allow these reputable organizations to return to Ethiopia to continue their important capacity-building work in advance of the election.”
Asked by Representative Donald Payne (Democrat of New Jersey) why the Ethiopian government was allowing The Carter Center to monitor the election and not the others, Yamamoto said he could not answer that question. But Subcommittee Chairman Christopher Smith (Republican of New Jersey) jumped in to say that it might be a belief that The Carter Center would be less critical in its evaluation of the electoral process.
Referring to the expulsions, Smith told the hearing: “Today, a number of colleagues joined me in sending a letter to Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, urging him to rescind the expulsion of three American NGOs helping to build democracy. … For the sake of continuing democratic progress in Ethiopia, we hope the prime minister will respond positively to our request.”
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
The chairman of Ethiopia’s national election board says thousands of voters will be re-registered for upcoming parliamentary polls after the discovery of serious abuses.
Kemal Bedri said Monday that officials will re-register voters in 15 polling stations in Ethiopia’s northeastern Afar region and in three stations in Sidama in the south.
Mr. Bedri said the decision was made after investigators found underage voters and people who had multiple ballots.
Nearly 27-million people have registered to cast ballots in the May 15 parliamentary elections.
The election chief also said some 320 foreign observers are expected to monitor the poll. They include observers from the United States, African Union, European Union, and the Arab League.
Opposition parties have already accused the Ethiopian government of jailing, torturing, and even killing its members ahead of the vote.
