Ethiopia’s electoral body contests CUD recent merger

Oct 15, 2005 (ADDIS ABABA) — Days after the opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) decided to boycott parliament unless the ruling EPRDF accedes to the 8 preconditions it set, the National Electoral Board (NEB) disclosed that it does not recognize the recent merger that took place in the Coalition

Reacting to the board’s statement, CUD said the NEB was trying to serve the interest at the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) which “for long wanted to destroy CUD.”

The four member parties of CUD, the All Ethiopia Unity party (AEUP), the Ethiopian Democratic Unity Party-Medhin (EDUP-Medhin), the Ethiopian Democratic League (EDL) and Rainbow Ethiopia – Movement for Democracy and Social Justice declared a merger recently.

Acting Registrar and Political Parties Affairs Head with the board, Mekonnen Wondimu, said the board was discussing the termination of the legal status of ?the Coalition’ in line with a recognition request in early November 2004 by the four member parties, which stipulated that the Coalition would cease to exist when the electoral process is over.

Responding to Mekonnen’s Statement, Birtukan Mideksa, first vice president of the CUD, told The Reporter that the electoral process hadn’t come to end. She said, “There was no specified time or date for the termination of the CUD.” “If it is saying the Coalition ceased to exist on May 15, then the NEB shouldn’t have sit on the same table with it some months after that day,” Birtukan added.

Mekonnen said the board was that the CUD was undergoing merger. “We found out about the merger only through media reports like anybody else. However, the board does not recognize the merger since no one has officially requested its recognition.

The board would decide on it if the request comes. But the board would also decide on its next step even if the request is not submitted to it,” he said.

Birtukan, on her part, said, “We never worried about the legal personality of the merged party on account of its not being registered by the NEB. This was so because we had and still have legal personality as Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD).”

The four member parties have not returned their official party licenses even though they have declared the finalization of the merger process.

(The Ethiopian Reporter/ST)