Update on elections in Ethiopia
Received via e-mail from: Young Ethiopian Professionals in the Diaspora
Well, the EU might be the one to blow this thing out of the water. Today it issued a preliminary report: EU criticises Ethiopian elections.
The European Union’s chief election observer in Ethiopia has said recent elections failed to meet international standards in several key respects.
Ana Gomes criticised the way charges of electoral fraud were dealt with after the parliamentary elections.
This is major news, and if the EU declares these elections sub-standard, things might be looking up for Ethiopia. So far, The Carter Center has yet to say when it will publish its final report.
In a very soap-opera-ish manner:
You might be interested to know that the Head of the National Election Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) as well as all its officials were, ehem, appointed by the Prime Minister of Ethiopia. The NEBE is the body that is burdened with ensuring free and fair elections, and it also “investigated” allegations of fraud. It had the duty of being “impartial.: Even more extraordinarily, the head of the NEBE, Mr. Kemal Bedri, also just haaaaaaa-pens to be the President of Ethiopian Supreme Court, where the opposition is supposed to go to appeal the election results. Such is democracy in Ethiopia.
Actually, pulling double and triple duty is common for ruling party members. For example, the Information Minister of Ethiopia, Mr. Bereket Simon, happens also to be the spokesperson for the ruling party. He also has a seat in parliament representing the Bugna area in Northern Ethiopia, which, by the way, in a very embarrassing turn of events, he lost soundly in the May 15th elections!
But not to worry, the ruling party held a “re-run” election for him, and, wow, he won his seat back– something like 20,000 votes to 500.
If you have the stomach to watch it, here is the video of the Australian TV analysis– something the media here has yet to pick up on.
And, a glimpse into the mind of the Ethiopian Prime Minister: here is his interview with BBC’s ‘Hardtalk.’ Very revealing.
God help us
