[Pol.ethiopia] Election

[Political Ethiopia]

Ethiopian electoral Process and the Outside World
Aseffa Birhane

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, while addressing his
party’s supporters, last Saturday, stated that
Ethiopia’s most important battle should be against
poverty.  He seems to allude that electoral victory is
not an end by itself.  The Prime Minister went further
saying that democracy, peace and stability are
inseparably related to the poverty reduction strategy.
 The logic is simply this:  With out democracy, there
can be no lasting peace and stability.  And without
these two, poverty reduction is definitely
unthinkable.  Ethiopia is the third most populous
country in Africa and the bulk of the population live
below poverty line.  Probably the Prime Minister had
this picture in mind when he repeatedly reminded the
public that democracy for Ethiopia is not a choice but
a question of national survival.

As part of the current initiatives towards nation
development, the government is pursuing an open-door
policy towards the outside world.  In the past,
Ethiopia was known for extra-ordinary sensitivity
towards any critical comment by outsiders.  Now, one
could easily observe that there is unprecedented rate
of open-ness and accommodation.  There is renewed
interest in forging extensive development partnership
with the donor community.   There is interest in amore
principled association with the rest of Africa.  There
is a new sense of confidence in playing a more
positive role that can ensure lasting peace and
stability in the Horn region.  Ethiopian foreign
policy is now based primarily on the domestic vital
interests of the country.  These would include
democracy, durable peace and sustainable development
as a means for realizing the country’s poverty
reduction strategy.

This is definitely a positive development for the
country and equally for those who would like to
maintain sustainable partnership with Ethiopia. 
Nothing could be sustainable when it is based on short
term interests that neglect the genuine aspirations of
the people of the country, especially the poor and
disprivileged sectors of the society.     During the
Emperor’s time, the Ethiopian government had a sense
of impunity while committing all sorts of atrocity
against its own citizens.  That was a false sense of
confidence based on un-conditional loyalty to the West
especially the US.  At the end, the emperor’s
government proved used-less for itself as well as for
its international partners as the country eventually
fell under community dictatorship.  Later, the Dergue
followed the same route while establishing
relationship with the Soviet bloc.  In both cases, the
mistake lied in the attitude of the governments of the
day concerning the vital national interests of the
country and its people.  This is why one could dare to
say with certainty that the current initiatives
towards greater and constructive open-ness should be
encouraged, and not abused on account of one’s short
term, and sometimes misconceived interests.

As part of the recent positive developments in the
country, a large number of international observers
have been invited to follow up the election which is
just few days away.  Observers representing the Carter
Center, European Union, African Union and the Arab
League are currently working through out the country. 
Recently observers who have come from Japan, china,
and India have joined them to take part in the
process.

Ethiopia has recently introduced Observer’s Code of
conduct which is compatible to most internationally
recognized standards.  It has opend up  wider room for
the international observers to bring irregularities to
the attention of the Election Board.  The restrictions
are the same as those applicable even in the well
developed democracies.  For instance, observers are
required not to interfere, say, by making comments
that would influence the electorate and by releasing
pre-emptive reports while the electoral process is
going on.  So far,. The international observers are
working freely along-side over 150,000 local
observers.

Mean while, there has been indication that certain
foreign circles try to influence the electoral process
on the account of misconceived interests.  For
instance, the Us based National Endowment for
Democracy has reportedly required the Ethiopian
government to allow opposition political parties hold
considerable number of seats in the parliament.  More
interestingly, this is posed as conditionality for
recognizing and legitimizing Ethiopia’s
democratization process.  No doubt that this sort of
intervention is un-necessary and may be offensive not
only to the government but also to the opposition as
well.  For instance, it just gives an impression as if
opposition parties are out to serve foreign interests.
 This apparently partisan requirement has not bee the
norm and the practice anywhere, including the western
world.  Needless to say, no one but the electorate has
to determine who should get what in the election.

In this connection, it is worth-mentioning that the
expulsion of a few individuals representing three
U.S-based organizations including-the National
Democratic Institute (NDI), the International
Republican institute (IRI) and the International
Foundation for Electoral systems (IFES) have provoked
furious reaction against the Ethiopian government. 
These persons were found working as observes with out
registering properly in compliance with the laws of
the country, according to government report.  It seems
to be the norm that every sovereign state requires
foreign observers to identify them-selves and register
in a transparent and   legitimate way.  One would
wonder what could have been the fate of such cases,
say, if detected in any of the American electoral
process.  In any case, what is more astonishing is
that the reaction which the incident has come to
provoke is not only unreasonable but quite
discouraging and unfriendly.

In the mean time, the same critics have not been fair
enough to take note of any of the positive initiatives
being taken in the present Ethiopian electoral
process.  The protracted inter-party debates and
extensive public interest and participation is not
common in Africa.  The active role of the judiciary to
protect, among others, the right of civil societies to
take part in the process at various levels and the
fast growing free press, the high level participation
of women as candidate for seats in the federal and
regional parliaments, and the like should have
attracted positive coverage, if not appreciation, 
Such un-sensitive attitudes can not be fair to
Ethiopia and    to any developing country aspiring to
join the modern world as democratic polity.

Thus, instead of such apparently self centered
dispositions, Ethiopia’s development partners should
aim attaining amore respectable objective.  They
should care and support the people of this
historically disadvantaged country by playing a
constructive role in electoral process and the over
all national effort towards development.  If democracy
is firmly established in Ethiopia, whose population
constitutes half of the inhabitants of the Horn; it
will definitely help to stabilize the region as a
whole.  Thus, the out side world especially countries
having immediate and long term strategic interests in
the region should encourage the Ethiopian government,
the opposition and the people at large to work
collectively towards the democratization of their
country.  Democratic and prosperous Ethiopia will
certainly be a more dependable prater for the free and
peace loving world.  The international observers
currently working in Ethiopia are widely expected to
demonstrate their commitment to this noble cause by
observing high professional and ethical standards in
the process.


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Pol.Ethiopia
May 19, 2005
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