"They can rule us as dictators, but not falsely portraying their image as democrats
... As far as they control the guns, they can rule us. But they cannot rule us by
portraying that Ethiopia is enjoying democracy while we do not have any."
-
Dr. Merera Gudina (February 2010)
.
The 'national question' remains the key of Ethiopia's future
OpenDemocracy/EthioMedia • July 2, 2010
So, what will be the position adopted by the new leadership? Will they
stick together, or will the old guard keep control from the sidelines?
Ethiopia's Election: All Losers
By René Lefort
The crushing electoral defeat of the Ethiopian opposition does not
actually help the ruling party and encourages its slide into authoritarianism
'I really feel totally betrayed by the system,' confessed Beyene Petros, one
of the most respected leaders of the Ethiopian opposition, a few days after its
crushing defeat in the general elections on 23 May 2010. 'I thought that, if we
competed in the elections, there would be a door ajar that could be made use of
by competing parties. This assumption of mine was totally misplaced.'
In 2010, the main opposition force, the Medrek (Forum), had a support base
extending over almost all the country, with the notable exception of the Amhara
region. On paper at least, its eight components had reached a common position on
the 'national question' and on the issue of land.
Read More »»»
RELATED:
Ethiopian Opposition Fails in Its Final Appeal Against Conduct of Election Bloomberg • July 21, 2010
.
Ethiopian Court Rejects Election Appeal
VOA News • June 18, 2010 - Ethiopia's
Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from opposition parties demanding a re-run
of the May 23 election.
The court Friday upheld an earlier decision from the National Electoral Board
dismissing the opposition's request. The Board had said the parties' claims of
fraud and pre-poll intimidation were unsupported by evidence. Read More »»»
RELATED:
Ethiopia Supreme Court rejects election result case Reuters • June 18, 2010
Ethiopia supreme court rejects opposition election appeal AFP • June 18, 2010
Ethiopia: Supreme Court to Hear Election Challenge The New York Times • June 16, 2010
.
Ethiopia opposition to appeal new poll rejection (AFP)
June 12, 2010 - Ethiopia's main opposition
bloc will lodge a court appeal on Monday to contest an electoral body rejection
of calls for a re-run of parliamentary polls, a senior official told AFP.
Medrek has claimed the May 23 vote was riddled with fraud and complained that
its observers and supporters were subject to intimidation, but its bid for a
re-run was subsequently turned down for lack of evidence.
"We have come to a decision, we are going to the supreme court on Monday to
fight against the unjust decision of the National Electoral Board," vice
chairman Merera Gudina told AFP. Read More »»»
.
Zenawi Begging Merera to Come Back to Parliament; Eritrea Next?
June 8, 2010 - The following is an excerpt
of a report from Ethiopian Review citing ION.
Anyone considering calling for the vote to be invalidated was warned that he
risks imprisonment. But on the other hand, Meles is fully aware that the
non-re-election of most of the opposition leaders will give his regime a major
problem. Consequently, secret negotiations are underway to give the opposition a
handful of seats. EPRDF representatives contacted Merera Gudina to promise him a
recount and to be elected to parliament if he distanced himself from the other
opponents. Read More »»»
.
OLF Urges the West to Reexamine Policy, Calls upon Political Forces to Coordinate Struggles
The OLF
would like to take this opportunity to again call upon all concerned political forces opposed to
the TPLF's tyrannical rule, to cooperate and coordinate our struggles, and once and for all get
rid of the wicked, cruel and criminal regime led by the tyrant Meles Zenawi.
June 3, 2010 - The Meles/TPLF regime's May 23,
2010, sham and fraudulent election vindicated the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF)
and embarrassed its foreign supports. The OLF did not have an illusion that the
Meles/TPLF regime is an antithesis to democracy and the rule of law. After all,
the Meles/TPLF regime is a declared and ardent disciple of the "Maoist theory of
Revolutionary Democracy" and as such one could expect of it nothing but a sham
and farcical elections.
The relation of the OLF and the TPLF regime was an adequate early warning to
all interested that the TPLF régime is tyrannical and it has no political will
and commitment to democracy, respect for human rights and freedoms and the rule
of law. This early warning was conveniently not heeded particularly by the
Western supporters of the tyrannical regime.
Read More »»»
.
Opposition reports mass detention of its supporters
June 2, 2010 - Ethiopia's government
ruling junta has detained about 1,000 opposition activists in the country's
Oromia region since May 22, the day before national elections, a leader of the Medrek opposition alliance said.
While most of those held have been released, supporter intimidation hasn't
stopped, Merera Gudina, a leader of the ethnic Oromo wing of Medrek, said in a
phone interview today.
"Beatings have continued, people are still being arrested and receiving
instant sentences of five or six months," said Merera. "Including the eve of
election day, about 1,000 of our party poll watchers have been detained."
Read More »»»
.
Ethiopia's Fraudulent Election Confirms the Necessity Of Decolonization Before Democratization
By Fayyis Oromia
June 2, 2010 - We had enough election
processes to expose Weyane in front of the "gullible" international community,
which has either naively or deliberately accepted Weyane led empire as one of
"African nations, which is on the noble road of democratization." OLF already
exposed the undemocratic nature of Weyane in 1992, just a year after Weyane's
takeover of power in Finfinne palace. CUD and UEDF did the same job of
exposing Weyane in 2005. Now, MEDREK and AEUP repeated it. From now on, we do
not need this job of exposing Weyane any more. What we need is to come together,
forge a necessary alliance based on the above mentioned common ground and then
fight against the fascists.
Read More »»»
.
Opposition Totally Absent from All 9
Regional State Councils
June 2, 2010
- The National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) has released provisional
results from the May 23 elections for the 9 Regional State Councils (Afar,
Amhara, Benishangul-Gumuz, Gambella, Harari, Oromia, SNNP, Somali and Tigray).
The results show the Opposition has won no single seat in all 9 Regional State
Councils.
Read More »»»
.
Interview: Ethiopia's only opposition MP
"won't be intimidated"
Ethiopia's Embarrassing Election
May 31, 2010 - Wall Street Journal - The ruling party has claimed to have swept all
but two of the 546 declared seats, which is more than enough to make the
parliament a complete rubber stamp for Mr. Zenawi. Read More »»»
May 31, 2010 - Reuters - Girma Seifu was at home hosting a dinner party to celebrate what
looked like a sure parliamentary seat win when he got the phone call that would
force him into the spotlight.
Ethiopia's opposition coalition, the eight-party Medrek, had won only one
seat in the 547-seat parliament - his.
"The secretary general of the party called," says the newly elected MP, in
his Addis Ababa office. "He said, 'you could be the only one'. I didn't expect
that." Read More »»»
.
Elections Not Fair, Will Take Action: Beyene Petros
May 31, 2010 - Addis Fortune: What are your thoughts about thee election result and how do
you interpret them?
Beyene Petros (Prof): Our position on the election outcome
is that it is simply a situation that has been dictated by the Ethiopian
Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). Hence, you see close to a 100pc
declaration of victory. We really do not consider this as an outcome of any
competitive election. It is simply what the EPRDF has decided to do, to present
something which is not acceptable to any democratically minded party or
individual. Read More »»»
.
Democratization in Ethiopia: Complete Failure
- HRLHA
May 31, 2010 - A week after Ethiopia's May 2010 elections, the fourth since the fall of the Dergue Regime, both the Ethiopian peoples and that of the world have undoubtedly learnt that absolute authoritarianism is back in place in Ethiopia by Mr. Meles Zenawi's ruling EPRDF party almost fully controlling the 547-seat parliament, clearing it off the opposition party members. Although Ethiopia's last week election results came not as a surprise, given the pre-election harassment and intimidation of members and supporters of opposition parties as well as the silencing of media and advocacy groups by the ruling EPRDF party, it is surprising that Mr. Meles Zenawi this time didn't care even about what some observers call
"Donors' Democracy," which he used to maintain by allowing a few candidates of opposition parties to win seats in the Parliament. Read More »»»
.
EU Chief
Observer, T. Berman, Hits Back at Ethiopian Herald's Bias
May 27, 2010 - With more than great interest I have read your article this morning ("EU EOM
says NEBE competent, professional to administer national election", as published
in the Ethiopian Herald) on our findings regarding the May 23 elections
in Ethiopia. You may imagine that I, as the Chief Observer, find it highly
important that the Ethiopian citizens have full access to accurate public
information on these findings.
Being a former journalist myself, I understand that you cannot possibly
highlight everything present in a report of 11 pages, in an article that is
necessarily much shorter. However, in this article, you exclusively show the
positive points we have mentioned on these elections. Not the smallest point of
our regrettably important list of factual criticism found room in your text.
Read More »»»
.
Ethiopian Opposition Leader Says Supporters 'Hunted' After Poll (Bloomberg) May 26, 2010
Two Ethiopia opposition members killed after poll (Reuters) May 26, 2010
Zenawi Threatens to Detain Opposition Leaders Amid Calls for Re-Run (Bloomberg) May 26, 2010
.
Elections in Ethiopia –
the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office
May 27, 2010 - Foreign Office Minister Henry Bellingham addresses 23 May turnout and
preliminary statement issued by European Union Election Observation Mission.
Foreign Office Minister Henry Bellingham said:
"I welcome the fact that the Ethiopian elections, which took place on 23 May,
were conducted in a peaceful environment and that the Ethiopian people turned
out to vote in large numbers. I call on all parties to continue to reject
violence.
"I note the preliminary statement issued by the European Union Election
Observation Mission (EOM), which is well-placed to give an independent,
impartial assessment of the Ethiopian elections ..."
Read More »»»
.
Editorial: Bad company
May 27, 2010 - Because it is an ally against terrorism, Ethiopia has been rewarded with
millions of dollars in U.S. military aid. Not only that, the U.S. government
also has largely been silent in regard to many human-rights abuses in the
country.
And, just as with Afghanistan, this country is unlikely to do more than
mildly rebuke the results of Ethiopia's parliamentary election. The balloting
Sunday occurred amid criticism by international observers that government
repression had guaranteed the results before any vote was cast. Read More »»»
.
Provisional Results: Opposition 1 Seat, EPRDF/TPLF
and Allies 544, Independent 1
May 26, 2010 - According to the updated provisional results from NEBE, the Opposition as a whole has 1 seat (Medrek
from the Finfinne/Addis Ababa region), EPRDF/TPLF and allies have 544 seats, and
1 seat goes to an independent from the SNNP region.
In related story, a study conducted by Addis Neger shows that the 99.63%
(544 out of 546 reported so far) victory claim of EPRDF breaks records set
by many of Africa's worst dictatorial ruling juntas of the last 20 years.
Read about it more at AddisNegerOnline.com.
Why did the EPRDF/TPLF government decide to have no meaningful opposition in
the parliament? Read More »»»
.
White House on Ethiopian Election: An environment conducive to free and fair elections was not in place
May 26, 2010 - We acknowledge the conclusion of Ethiopia's parliamentary elections on May 23, 2010. We commend the people of Ethiopia for their civic participation and note that the voting proceeded peacefully.
We are concerned that international observers found that the elections fell short of international commitments. We are disappointed that U.S. Embassy officials were denied accreditation and the opportunity to travel outside of the capital on Election Day to observe the voting. The limitation of independent observation and the harassment of independent media representatives are deeply troubling. Read More »»»
.
Implications of a Landslide Win for Zenawi
Reuters - "It means that the EPRDF had decided - and successfully taken the appropriate authoritarian measures - not only to be the unquestionable winner of the 2010 elections, but also to get its revenge on the opposition by humiliating it in 2010 as much as it felt humiliated by the opposition's push in 2005 …"
- Rene Lefort Read More »»»
Unease over extent of ruling party's landslide in Ethiopia
May 26, 2010 - The Guardian - Ethiopia's ruling party and its allies won 99.6% of parliamentary seats in Sunday's election, according to preliminary results, raising serious questions over the country's democratic direction.
The Ethiopian national electoral board announced today that the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF)
- the party of the prime minister, Meles Zenawi - had secured 499 out of the 547 seats, with allied parties winning a further 35.
Read More »»»
.
Out Goes Election, In Comes Nile
- Post Election Diversion
May 26, 2010 - The Nile River renegotiation effort that was escalated to a new high tone with the signing of a new deal just prior to the Ethiopian general election is expected to dominate the news circuits in the coming few weeks.
Already, the "opposition" (which just got eliminated from the domestic political system)
is united with the newly re-crowned ruling junta on the issue of Nile. Here are
some of the statements from the "opposition" ... Read More »»»
U.S. says Ethiopia vote not up to international standards May 25, 2010
NEBE: With Votes from 98% Constituencies Counted, Opposition Wins 1 Seat May 25, 2010
Zenawi's Ethiopian election sting (Al Jazeera) May 25, 2010
Ethiopian Poll Was Not Fair - Chief EU Observer. "Completely Fraudulent" - Merera Gudina May 25, 2010
Seye Defeated in Tembien, the "Election Has Been Stolen" May 25, 2010
Ethiopia: Government Repression Undermines Poll | Human Rights Watch May 25, 2010
The 2010 Election, Blogging, Medrek and the Future of Ethiopia | Oromsis Adula May 25, 2010
Ethiopian Election 2010: Peering at the Numbers | Jawar S. Mohammed May 24, 2010
Anxiously awaiting who gets to go to Arat Kilo, Kaliti, Ma'ekalawi | Oromsis Adula May 24, 2010
Merera Gudina: Ethiopia 'a defacto One-Party State'
