The party that overthrew a horrific junta in Ethiopia retained power through the ballot, but only after months of violence and allegations of vote-rigging that raised concerns about the future of democracy in the country.
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front was declared the official winner of May 15 general elections with an announcement on Monday from the National Electoral Board. Opposition parties continued to argue, though, they were robbed of a victory by Meles’s party.
The board released official results giving Meles’s party control of 60% of the 547-seat Parliament, or 327 seats, enough to form the next government. The results gave the opposition 174 seats — a substantial improvement over the 12 that opposition parties won in the previous elections, in 2000.
The Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front went into the elections seemingly confident of support from a population it had delivered from dictatorship and that was reliant on official food aid. Instead, there was a groundswell of support for an opposition promising economic and political reforms. A crackdown ensued, and the result was an election widely denounced as undemocratic.
In several constituencies where opposition candidates were believed to have won the first round, courts allowed a revote that resulted in turnarounds favouring the government candidate.
A rerun is still to be held in a constituency where the winner, from the opposition, was fatally shot by police. Results for one seat in the Somali region were withheld as officials investigate allegations of irregularities, electoral chief Kemal Bedri said in a statement.
Freer and fairer
The opposition’s relatively strong showing could be seen as proof the process was freer and fairer than in 2000. Many in this nation of 71-million say that while this year’s vote was flawed, it was still progress. Ethiopia has had only three national elections in its 3 000-year history.
”We are very proud that we voted and think we are now on the way to democracy and this cannot change,” said Almaz Berhane, a 42-year-old homemaker who voted for the first time in her life in the May balloting.
”I think there were some problems and that was not good for the country,” Almaz added. ”But we are beginners in this and so have to learn for the future.”
Netsanet Demissie, head of Ethiopia’s independent Organisation for Social Justice, which had fielded homegrown election observers, declared the elections a ”very mixed picture”.
”We have seen a significant increase for opposition, very high voter turnout and greater political [awareness]. But how it unfolds is yet to be seen.”
Foreign experts — allowed for the first time to monitor an Ethiopian election — expressed serious concerns, but also said that overall the experience would encourage democracy.
The Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front first came to power in 1991, ousting Marxist dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam after a 17-year guerrilla war. Like many former guerrillas who see themselves as the people’s saviours, front leaders at times appear to have difficulty accepting that any opposition could be legitimate.
The front, though, allowed opposition parties unprecedented access to the media during the campaign. And it allowed in foreign observers.
Suspicions the ruling party stole the vote sparked street protests in the days after the balloting. Human rights groups say 42 people were killed by security forces firing on the protesters.
Britain, which had lauded Meles as being on the vanguard of democratic reform across Africa, froze $34,9-million in aid after police fired on demonstrators. On August 25, European Union chief election observer Ana Gomes said key aspects of the elections failed to meet international standards. She cited widespread human rights abuses, with opposition members arrested and witnesses to election violations intimidated.
Meles called the EU report ”garbage” and accused Gomes of acting like a ”colonial viceroy”.
Opposition complaints
The opposition is considering boycotting the new Parliament.
”There is not an atmosphere of democracy here. What you see is an atmosphere of repression,” said Brehanu Nega, vice-chairperson of the opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy. ”We started with hope and that is being undermined by what happened in the election and the post-election repression.”
But Information Minister Bereket Simon says the polls and the opposition gains are proof democracy is emerging.
”The democratic process and institutions are being created and developed,” Bereket said. ”We democratise to satisfy the demand of the Ethiopian people — it is in their interest.”
Addis Ababa shopkeeper Bekele Woldemariam said Meles’s reputation at home has suffered.
”People … blame Meles for the violence, so we have lost some trust in him,” Bekele said. ”But now we need to try and get things back to normal, even if we don’t like the results. I think people abroad will look back and see serious problems, but maybe we are moving in the right direction, even if the results were stolen.” — Sapa-AP