Ethiopia is heading to the 5th National and Regional elections. One of the largest democratic exercises in the African continent.
Sadly, there is no much song about this phenomenon of regional scale. To the contrary, whenever an election approaches, the media talks a lot about election 2005.
But Ethiopian’s first encounter with electoral democracy started two decades ago in mid-1992 during the Transitional period, only a year after the downfall of the brutal military dictatorship, .
At the time, the country was governed by a Transitional Government Council, which consisted more than three dozen parties, including OLF. The seat allocation was agreed on by the June 1991 Transitional conference by representatives of almost all political parties, trade unions and other associations, including public figures.
About six months after the Conference, the Transitional Government Council in turn approved the establishment of multi-party regional and zone level governments, paving the way for self-governance of nations and nationalities.
However, Wedera and Kebele administrations were organized by direct elections. Thus, for the first time in history, in June 1992, Ethiopians exercised electoral democracy by determining the composition of local governments through the ballot box.
Elections are a crucial component of the democratic developmental state. The Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia stipulates that:
Article 8 (3): “The sovereignty [of the Nations, Nationalities and Peoples of Ethiopia] shall be expressed through their representatives elected in accordance with this Constitution and through their direct, democratic participation.”
Article 38 (1), the Constitution underlined that: “Every Ethiopian national [has the right] to take part in the conduct of public affairs, directly and through freely chosen representatives”.
In line with the Constitutional principles, Ethiopia conducted the 1st and the 2nd National and Regional elections in 1995 and 2000, respectively.
The public determined – through secret ballot boxes – the composition and directions of its representatives.
Nevertheless, election 2005 attracted bigger international attention due to the post-election violence that left scores of civilians and police officers dead.
Same as the previous elections, election 2005 was free and democratic. As the Carter Center stated in its report entitled “Observing The 2005 Ethiopia National Elections”:
“There were more open debates, including a long series of widely-discussed live televised debates. Opposition parties benefited from guaranteed access to the state-owned electronic media. Candidates campaigned widely and effectively. Most dramatically, the electoral campaign climaxed in its final week with large and peaceful campaign rallies.
The Voting Day around the country occurred relatively smoothly and on time, with most delays only lasting 20 minutes to an hour. All election officials were present and electoral materials accounted for at the time of openings.
Any delays in openings seem simply to have been caused by election officials taking care to carry out procedures properly and the extensive time it took to sign and stamp all ballots. Many polling stations commenced voting before the total ballot count was completed. As a result, some stations were counting and stamping ballots throughout the day.
The environment throughout most of the country was calm and peaceful. Voter turnout was overwhelming, and while citizens had to wait in extremely long lines, they showed remarkable patience. In the late afternoon, the NEB announced that all citizens who were in line at 6 p.m. would be allowed to vote, which alleviated some concerns. Thus, citizens who wished to vote were able to do so.”
However, the process did not end smoothly. The opposition parties refused to assume power in Addis Ababa Council where they won.
On other hand, they demanded the formation of a coalition government at the Federal level, where EPRDF won.
The Carter report noted:
“unconfirmed reports of election results from the political parties began to circulate on election night, suggesting that the opposition parties had scored significant electoral gains, especially in capital Addis Ababa and other urban areas.
After unofficial reports circulated in May showing the opposition parties controlling the majority of seats, preliminary results released over the remainder of May and through June indicated the ruling Ethiopian People’s
Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) controlled a majority of seats. Opposition parties claimed fraud and organized protests, including taxi strikes and student demonstrations at the University of Addis Ababa.”
The 3rd National and Regional elections of 2005 demonstrated the success of reactionary forces opposed to self-rule and decentralization in misleading a significant section of the public and triggering post-election violence.
Even if their attempts to change government through a color revolution style violence failed to deliver the intended results due to Ethiopia’s increasingly participatory political and economic system, it was seen that the democratic order was still fragile.
The government of Ethiopia has learned from it. Moreover, it needed to take several measures.
Firstly, the post-election violence left a chilling effect on the democratic process. Therefore, the government had to address the problem through nationwide public consultations on administrative problems, national consensus building discussions and by modifying a number of flawed decisions made by some Ministries and regional administrations as per public demand.
Secondly, the government had to restore confidence on the electoral process by re-affirming the rule of law. Those who incited and master-minded the post-election violence were tried, convicted and sentenced in a Court of law, attended by diplomats, foreign and domestic journalists and other concerned people.
Despite Western pressure, the trial went through affirming equality before the law and the duty to abide by the law.
It was after the supremacy of the Constitution was re-affirmed that the government accepted the pardon petition of the convicts, so that the nation can move on leaving behind that page of history.
Thirdly, the government saw it necessary to enhance the capacity for free, fair and peaceful electoral process. Despite the fact that the ruling party had a majority in the parliament, it voluntarily committed itself to a painstakingly long and tiresome process of consultations with opposition parties to achieve consensus on the necessary improvements on the processes and institutions of electoral democracy, including the election law and the re-organization of the National Board of Election (NBE).
Following these important stages, the Parliament appointed a new Board for NBE.
Though the Prime Minister has the Constitutional power to nominate candidates for NBE and present them to Parliament for approval, he limited himself to choose only from the list of individuals verified as independent by all parliamentary opposition parties.
In cooperation with parliamentary opposition parties, the EPRDF enacted and amended key proclamations, such as:
- Proclamation no. 662/2009 – A proclamation to provide for the electoral code of conduct for political parties
- Proclamation no. 532/2007 – A proclamation to amend the electoral law of Ethiopia
- Proclamation no. 573/2008 – Political parties registration proclamation
- The newly formed Election board undertook several capacity building measures as well as the issuance of several important directives:
- Code Of Conduct for the Mass Media and Journalists on the Manner of Reporting about Elections Regulation Number 6/2010
- The Amended Directive on the Code of Conduct of Election Officials to Be Recruited at Various Levels Directive Number 4/2009
- Regulation Concerning the Procedure for Determining the Apportionment of Government Financial Support to Political Parties Regulation
- Organization and Procedure of Grievance Hearing Committees Established by the Board at Every Level During Elections Regulation Number 1/2009 (As Amended)
- Directive on the Registration of Candidates Number 1/2009(As Amended)
- Directive for the Registration of Electors number 2/2009(As Amended)
- Directive Concerning the Procedure for the Activities of Public Observers and Representatives of Political Parties and Private Candidates Number 3/2009
Moreover, capacity building training has been offered to members of political parties, judiciaries, law enforcement bodies, election officers and public observers on several occasions so as to deepen awareness of stakeholders and shape their attitude towards electoral activities.
Among those, for example, last February, the National Electoral board of Ethiopia conducted workshop on ‘election violence and early warning’ for political party leaders in Addis Ababa, Adama and Hawasa. The participants were from national and regional parties and of the total parties invited (75), 66 attended in the workshops organized.
Again, the next month, the board conducted training on civic and voters education for civic society organizations in Benshangul/Gumuz regional state. The trainees were members of the youth, women and teachers associations represented from 21 woredas of the region. The total number of participants was 130 of whom 48 or 36% were women.
The training focused on the role of civic organizations in democratization process, constitution and concepts of civic & voter education. At the end of the training, participants appreciated on the way the training was organized and expressed that it enabled them understand the core values of constitution, democracy, development and their roles in achieving them.
Furthermore, the board has now publicized the electoral timetable for the upcoming 5th general elections scheduled to be held in May 2015.
In a press conference, two weeks ago the Board Chairperson Prof. Merga Bekana disclosed that more than 30 varieties of duties have been listed into the election timetable.
The timetable was approved after series of consultations with political parties and based on analyses of lessons learnt from previous elections.
According to the timetable, May the 24th will be the voting date and the result will be announced on 22 June 2015.
So far, all except one or two political parties have been working in concord with the board.
From past experience, we all know that most of the complaints that the extremist opposition present is, in reality, a pretext to cover up their lack of interest in democratic elections. In fact, the opposition parties either boycotted or participated half-heartedly since the first election.
Firstly, the extremist opposition parties know well that they stand little chance vis a vis the democratic developmental paradigm that delivered enormous progress of the peoples of Ethiopia.
Secondly, the lack of vision, program, discipline and organizational capacity of the extremist opposition parties will be revealed if they take part in a real democratic electoral process.
On top of that the opposition party members are mostly focused on personal gains rather than serving the people, they would not be interested to work at the grassroots level.
Therefore, we can assume the extremist opposition parties will not be much interested in elections. Even though many of the legally registered opposition parties are expected to participate.
Now, the next election is few months away. Almost all the moderate legal opposition parties have already expressed their interest to participate in the election. Still, we do not know about the position of one or two extremist parties.
But the Ethiopian government and public will have no interest with short-sighted calculations and nonsensical pretexts. The peoples of Ethiopia know it is time to consolidate the gains made in democracy and development.
Moreover, they had learnt election is the means to ascertain their gains from the development and strengthen their say in the governance of the nation.
Therefore, it is expected that, the people will take advantage of the next election – turning out at record rates – to exercise their Constitutional rights and determine their rights. Most of the legally registered political parties will be compete presenting their alternative programs. Where the extremist opposition and their neo-liberal patrons stand will be seen.