Ethiopian opposition party may be forced to boycott coming elections

By Simegnish Yekoye

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia - One of Ethiopia’s biggest opposition parties, the United Ethiopian Democratic Party (UEDP), says it will be forced to withdraw from the coming election if harassment of their members continues.
According to leader of the party, Professor Beyene Petros, party members who are running for the coming local and regional election to take place in April are having a hard time getting registered with the National Election Board (NEB), the nation’s electoral body.

"Especially in regional districts where we know we can win for sure, our party candidates are getting rejected and dismissed from running in the election," Beyene says.
All opposition parties, including UEDP, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD), and the Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement (OFDM) had voiced pre-conditions that must be met by the NEB before they agree to participate in the elections. They have said that there cannot be any elections without the NEB first responding to their pre-conditions – mainly access to public mass media, party financing with federal funds, and a proper administrative structure. But up to now the parties have gone along with the schedule of the NEB without any of their pre-conditions addressed by the board.

"We were at least trying to go ahead with what is at hand, hoping they will change things in due process," Beyene says. "But what the ruling party is trying to do is run on its own and to hold everything with monopoly."
According to the party leader, UEDF had written a nine-page letter to the NEB, stating all the problems the party is facing and attaching all their evidence.

But in an interview he gave to Voice of America, the chairman of the NEB, Tesfaye Mengesha, who just got re-elected by the parliament, said he never received such a letter from the party.
"Maybe it came through the registrar and I never saw it. But even if I do, nothing will be done unless they can prove it." Tesfaye said the party repeatedly tries to come up with excuses in order to spoil the election.
But Beyene’s party says all that the NEB has done is harass and beat its party members. "We can’t even tell how many candidates our party has to run for the election," he says, "and this is because after they are registered legally, the NEB cancels their name, and other times, they totally refuse to register them."

The party also complains that it is unfair for one party to be requested to come up with 300 candidates from each kebele [village] and Beyene asks, "If everyone in that kebele is a candidate, who will be electing them?"
The biggest opposition party, which was popular during the national election of May 2005, the CUD, is also not taking part in the coming elections, as it lost its name and symbol to other parties by NEB decision-makers.
It is to be recalled Professor Beyene Petros had lost his bid to be the president of Ethiopia last October being defeated by current incumbent president Girma Woldegiorgis who won a second term n office by a margin of 321 votes in the upper house of parliament.

According to the NEB schedule, the local and regional election will be held on April 20 and 23, 2008. Some 40 seats are vacant at federal parliament in addition to elections for local administrations.