Ethiopian electoral panel to sue opposition for defamation

ADDIS ABABA, June 3 (AFP) — Ethiopia’s electoral board said Friday, amid tensions ahead of the release of final but hotly disputed poll results, that it would sue the two main opposition groups for making statements that cast doubts on its impartiality.

Kemal Bedri, the chairman of the National Election Board of Ethiopia. (Reuters).

“The election board will sue them in accordance with electoral laws,” National Electoral Board of Ethiopia’s (NEBE) said in a statement released here.

On Tuesday, the Coalition of Unity and Democracy (CUD) and United Ethiopian Democratic Front (UEDF) said the electoral board and the ruling party had conspired to rig the polls.

“Such statements, though baseless and fabricated, may mislead the public and discredit the efforts of the NEBE,” the board said in a statement published in the Amharic language.

On the same day, Ethiopia’s main opposition groups filed suit to stop the NEBE from certifying provisional results that give the ruling Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) and allied parties 320 seats in the 547-member parliament.

Those returns, from 513 of the 524 contested consituencies, show opposition parties, which had only 12 seats in the previous parliament, and independents with 193 seats.

In addition, the opposition asked the court to lift a one-month, post-election ban on public demonstrations in the capital imposed by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, which it considers illegal.

But an Ethiopian high court on Friday refrained from ruling on the ban and instead referred the case to a parliamentary commission on constitutional affairs to rule it actually violated rights.

“As the case raises constitutional legal debate the court decide to refer the case to the constitutional inquiry commission for legal interpretation” Justice Woldemicheal Meshesha ruled.

The court was due to rule on the charge of barring NEBE from certifying the disputed results later Friday.

Despite a raft of electoral complaints, the EPRDF has, however, won a majority in the country’s national assembly, but opposition parties made remarkable improvements compared to the last parliament.

Apart from threatening to sue for defamation, the electoral panel insisted it was non-partisan and said it had given the complaining parties ample time to avail evidence.

“I did not expect such a statement from NEBE after we agreed that complaints will be investigated right from the top to the bottom throughout the country,” UEDF’s Vice President Beyen Petros said.

The May 15 polls were the country’s third multiparty elections since 1991, when Marxist dictator Mengistu Haire Mariam was toppled, and the first to be monitored by international observers.

Final official results are due to be released on June 8 but the opposition coalition have vowed to reject them and stage mass protests unless their allegations of vote-rigging are fully probed.

International observers, who lauded the conduct of the election on polling day itself, have registered growing concern at post-vote developments and urged that all complaints be fully investigated and adjudicated.

The EPRDF, which has been in power for 14 years, has conceded losses in the election but insists it has enough seats in parliament to form a new government.