CUD concerned by composition of NEBE’s investigation panel
By Binyam Alemayehu, The Ethiopian Reporter
ADDIS ABABA, June 25, 2005 — At a time when the National Electoral Board (NEB) is about to begin probing into nearly half of the 299 complaints of alleged irregularities and fraud, Ethiopia’s main opposition party, the coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD), expressed its concern over the appointment of what it called “pro-government” officials of NEB to the complaints investigation committee.
CUD’s Election Executive Committee Chairman Gizachew Shiferaw said CUD feared that the assignment of NEB’s officials, Ato Tesfaye Mengesha and Mekonnen Wondimu, as two or the three chairs to the complaints investigation committee, might jeopardize the investigation process since, as he said, the two officials had time and again manifested their pro-EPRDF stance.
Gizachew said the third member of committee was going to be a legal expert of the board. He said that while such massive and controversial investigation entailed personalities with ample educational and legal background, the credentials and independence of the two officials were too inadequate to quality them for the job. The CUD official, nevertheless, said his party would exhaust all the legal means to help Ethiopians achieve a clean sweep to a new democratic order.
Asked what CUD would do if the court ruled against it, Gizachew said his party was not bent on filing complaints after complaints, as cohorts of the ruling regime claim, but on ensuring that people’s votes are respected.
“We want to test the efficiency and independence of what EPRDF calls democratic institutions such as NEB and the Federal Supreme Court. The electoral process is going to proceed with such a legal manner, and our party would accept any result coming out of a fair and accurate investigation, even if it means losing for CUD.”
Meanwhile, the vice chairman of the United Ethiopian Democratic Forces (UEDF), Beyene Petros, said that although NEB’s Ato Tesfaye and Ato Mekonnen had been assigned to lead the complaints committee, he believed several party representatives and other legal professionals working under them could very will influence their decisions.” I don’t think these two individuals could reject objections from various investigation team members,” he said.
According to Beyene, UEDF has learnt that the best way to defeat EPRDF over its attempt to unduly influence the board was to support complaints with sufficient evidence. “We believe that all of our complaints submitted to the board are sufficient evidence to achieve justice over EPRDF’s erroneous vote rigging,” he said.
Nevertheless, Beyene Petros said his party did not have the intention to sit idly by in the next parliament while people’s votes were manipulated and trampled upon.