Ethiopian opposition complains that EU election observers arriving late
By ANTHONY MITCHELL, Associated Press Writer
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, Mar 21, 2005 (AP) — The European Union will be sending too few elections observers and too late to ensure free and fair elections in Ethiopia, an opposition leader said Monday, adding that the government has already taken steps to guarantee the ruling party a victory.
The first of 159 EU election observers arrived over the weekend, the first outsiders to officially monitor balloting in Ethiopia. The May 15 vote will only be the third election in the Horn of Africa nation’s history.
“There are too few observers,” said Brehanu Nega, the campaign manager for the Coalition for Unity and Democracy, one of the largest opposition groups. “We don’t think 159 observers can effectively monitor voting in 38,000 polling stations.”
The observer mission has already missed the critical voter and candidate registration process, other critics added.
“They have got here too late to make a difference,” said Beyene Petros, vice chairman of the United Ethiopian Democratic Forces. “These important points of observation have already been missed so the damage has already been done.”
He said children as young as 10 have been registered to vote in his constituency and some were given multiple voting cards. The 2000 elections in Hadiya, 200 kilometers (125 miles) south west of Addis Ababa, had to be rerun because of similar abuses.
EU officials insisted the initial nine observers and the remaining deployment of 150 would help ensure the elections were carried out on a level playing field. In April 50 additional observers will arrive and in early May 100 more will be deployed for the May 15 polling, officials added.
“This is important because it helps ensure democracy,” said EU spokesman Solomon Kebede. The EU team also represents the largest group of independent international observers in Ethiopia.
The coalition government welcomed the observers.
“The government of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia welcomes the European delegation of observers and wishes them success in their work and a pleasant time in Ethiopia,” the information ministry said in a statement.
Previous elections have been convincingly won by the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front. The EPRDF and affiliated parties hold 519 of 548 seats in the federal parliament.
More than 25 million of Ethiopia’s 70 million people have registered to vote.