Foreigners observe Ethiopian poll
2005-05-10 14:43
Addis Ababa - With a campaign for Ethiopia's weekend general elections in full swing, poll watchers are descending on the country in droves for the impoverished Horn of Africa nation's first-ever vote under foreign scrutiny.
Amid a chorus of opposition complaints of abuses, irregularities and vehement ruling party denials, some 300 international monitors are fanning out across the country ahead of Sunday's elections, which Addis Ababa hopes will showcase its avowed commitment to democracy.
About 160 observers from the European Union, 50 from the US-based Carter Centre, 30 from the African Union and others from China, Japan, India, Turkey and the Arab League are expected to be in place for the vote.
Despite the desire of the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) for a clean bill of health, early indications are that the election will not entirely meet international standards for freedom and fairness.
Turbulent history
In March, the government expelled three US-funded pro-democracy groups which intended to observe the polls for administrative reasons and, in April, the country's electoral board refused to recognise the observer status of 30 local groups although a high court has since ordered the decision reverse.
While praising the unprecedented openness of the campaign, EU officials have raised a number of concerns with Ethiopian authorities about harassment and intimidation of the opposition, including physical assaults, disruptions of rallies and the use of hate speech in the campaign.
Those concerns appear to mirror some complaints raised by the opposition umbrella Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) which accuses the EPRDF of widespread and systematic abuses.
The EPRDF, led by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi who has been in power for 14 years since the ouster of Soviet-backed dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam in 1991, has repeatedly dismissed the charges as lies.
Ethiopian Information Minister Berekat Simon, also the EPRDF's campaign spokesman, said on Monday charges of malfeasance had already been investigated and deemed false.
Yet the head of the EU observer mission said she had personally spoken with opposition members who had been beaten and said she had written to electoral authorities to point out "situations of intimidation everywhere".
On Tuesday, the US-based Human Rights Watch issued a report accusing Addis Ababa of suppressing political dissent, harassing and detaining people perceived as political foes, despite holding itself up as a model of democracy.
At the same time, Tim Clarke, the chief of the EU delegation in Addis Ababa, described the situation, in which the rival camps held peaceful mass rallies in the capital at the weekend, as a "miracle".
About 25 million Ethiopians are registered to vote in Sunday's polls in which local council representatives and most of the 547 seats in parliament will be up for grabs.