Carter center declines observing Ethiopia’s election

By Tesfa Alem Tekle

February 22, 2010 (ADDS ABABA) — As election campaign among Ethiopian political opponents heats up, the Carter center announces that it will not be sending an observer mission to monitor national election in May.

The decision comes after the Ethiopian government postponed carter center’s request of sending an exploratory team in December to February.

Carter center argued that the arrival of its exploratory team in February will be too late to study whether to accept Ethiopia ’s invitation to monitor the upcoming election.

“After careful consideration and with deep regrets, The Carter Center has decided not to observe the 2010 elections in Ethiopia,” the center said in a letter it sent to the Ethiopian Foreign Ministry.

“The center said that if they arrived that late, they would not be able to send long-term observers until it was too late for them to do it properly”

The Ethiopian government has invited a number of international observer groups.
An African union observer team has already did a pre-election assessment. Another team from the European union has arrived Monday on a same mission.

The EU exploratory team up on return to Brussels will advise policy makers whether conditions for a fair election exist in the horn of Africa ’s country

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs admitted that the Carter Center had requested to send its team in December. Wahide Belay, spokesperson for the Ministry, however said, “We were tied up with other responsibilities such as undertaking preparations to host the African Union meeting here and consequently unable to comply with the center’s request. Its decision not to participate has only to do with scheduling issues. It was discussed and agreed on by both sides in good faith.”

Wahide further said the ministry had sent invitations to the African Union, the Carter Center and European Union, and indicated that they were welcome to send their pre-assessment teams “early to mid February.”

(ST)