Ethiopian government agrees to ease election restrictions
ADDIS ABABA, Nov 3 (AFP) — The Ethiopian government has agreed to ease a law that makes it difficult for opposition parties to contest polls but has refused to open up the country’s election commission to them, according to an official statement received by AFP.
The ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) “has in principle agreed to accept most of the amendments and has expressed its commitment to amend the election law following proper procedures,” read a statement released jointly by the EPRDF and the United Ethiopian Democratic Forces (UEDF), a year-old coalition of 14 opposition parties with nine seats in parliament, after the two groups met on Tuesday.
General elections are due May 15, 2005.
“The opposition has proposed 30 amendments, the EPRDF has accepted 75 percent of them,” Information Minister Solomon Abebe Tassema told reporters.
“We will ease the law, so that all the 69 parties in Ethiopia can register. The parties will only need 500 signatures instead of 1,000 to become a candidate,” he added.
The EPRDF, which is also a coalition, of four regional parties, and which occupies 481 of parliament’s 547 seats, also agreed in principle to opposition demands for access to state media, for observers to monitor elections, for guarantees of free movement during campaign periods and for symbols attributed to different parties to be simplified.
But the ruling party refused the opposition’s main demand, that it be allowed to sit on the electoral commission.
“The most important thing, which is not going to happen, is changing the election board to a bipartisan institute,” said the information minister.
He explained that the commission’s members were appointed by the prime minister, Meles Zenawi, then approved by parliament.
UEDF deputy leader Beyane Petros was largely pleased with the developments.
“The fact that the EPRDF is willing to amend the election law is quite a change of attitude of the ruling party,” he said.
“Over the last thirteen years, they have always answered that this law is not negociable” he added.
On the selection method of the commission’s members, however, he said: “Parliament is 95 percent ruling party, that is why we say that this election board is not neutral.”