Ethiopians luke-warm about poll
2005-05-12 00:18
Ethiopia - Far from the hustle and bustle of Addis Ababa where frenetic campaigning for Sunday's hotly contested general elections is in full swing, politics is a luxury in which few can afford to indulge.
Beset by drought, floods, chronic food shortages and disease, Ethiopia's impoverished rural peasantry — 85% of the Horn of Africa nation's 70 million population — has little time for electioneering and even less interest in the upcoming polls.
While politicians battle for leadership of the country and the trappings of power, subsistence farmers and herders in the countryside literally fight for survival in one of the world's poorest and least-developed nations.
People almost oblivious to elections
Here, outside the town of Mekelle, 770km north of the capital and in villages that dot the road, the paramount concern is, as ever, the weather and if the next harvest will produce enough to stave off the persistent threat of starvation.
The man was noncommittal when asked whether he would vote, replying he is more concerned about the rain.
A traveller driving south from Mekelle passes through dozens of small communities devoid of the colourful campaign posters of the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) and main opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) that festoon the capital and larger towns.
It is only 180 kilometres away at an unnamed crossroads that one finds the first signs that an exercise in democracy's fundamental right is imminent and even then, the lack of excitement in the process is palpable.
Lukewarm feelings
"There were meetings about the election here," said Mahdi Ali, a 45-year-old fuel station attendant. "But people don't seem to be that concerned. Every one of us is struggling to win his family's bread."
Abdu Aligaz, a 67-year-old peasant, has been unimpressed with the performance of the widely disparate Ethiopian governments under which he has lived and sees little point in the election.
"I have seen three governments in my lifetime," he said, referring to the imperial monarchy of the late emperor Haile Selassie, the Soviet-backed dictatorship of Mengistu Haile Mariam that followed and the current less authoritarian administration.
"None have done anything to change my life or that of my children," Aligaz said, adding that he will vote but not with any enthusiasm.
It is not for another 425km, that there is real evidence of an upcoming election as campaign posters begin to appear on the walls of buildings on the very northern outskirts of Addis Ababa.
In the town of Deberberhane, 130km north of the capital, election activity is apparent with ruling party activists sporting tee-shirts with the EPRDF's bee logo and CUD supporters flashing the two-fingered "V for victory" sign the opposition has taken on.