EU scolds Ethiopian govt, opposition for premature poll victory claims

ADDIS ABABA, May 17 (AFP) — The European Union (EU) on Tuesday scolded the Ethiopia’s ruling party and opposition for premature announcements of their success in the hotly contested weekend elections, but said the process had been relatively smooth.

Ana Gomes, the chief election observer from the European Union, gives a media briefing, Tuesday, May 17, 2005 on their findings of the Ethiopian elections in Addis Ababa. (AP).

“The EU election observation mission thinks that these announcements are not proper and will continue to follow the counting and tabulation closely,” Anna Gomes, head of the EU observer mission here, told reporters in Addis Ababa.

Late Monday, the country’s ruling Ethiopian People’s Ruling Democratic Front (EPRDF) announced it had won the polls and offered an olive branch to the opposition, which made significant gains in the federal 547-seat parliament.

The EU, however, hailed the impoverished Horn of Africa nation for holding peaceful and orderly elections, despite glitches noted in certain polling sites that were mostly attributed to poor management and lack of planning.

“It is amazing. It is a great example of faith in democracy by the people of Ethiopia to Ethiopians, to Africans and the world, but the process is not yet complete,” Gomes said.

She said “there were clear deficiencies in the voting operation, which was made dificult by deficient planning and management of the polling stations.”

The EU mission that deployed more than 200 observers on the elction day to oversee voting in some 1,034 polling sites out of which 77 percent were rated “very good,” 17 percent “poor” and 5 percent “unsatisfactory,” also said that voter intimidation was noted in some of the polling stations.

In addition to the glitches, the mission “expresses its serious concerns regarding threats and intimidation against supporters of opposition parties, including isolated cases of murder during the electoral campaign.”

Officials of the National Election Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) could not confirm any result, either for the opposition or the ruling party, until Saturday, but said the parties had the right to express what they felt of the polls.

“Parties have the right to say ‘we have won this and we have lost that’, but it has to be verified,” NAEBE spokesman Getahun Amogne said.

Government officials speculated that the opposition would get 30 to 35 percent of the vote, according diplomats.

The election was the country’s third since the fall of a Soviet-backed dictatorship, second since the advent of multi-party politics and first under international scrutiny.

It is hoped to put the vast Horn of Africa nation known for grinding poverty and famine squarely on the path to democracy and stability in a region known for political volatility.