Ethiopia’s electoral authorities withdraw faulty ballot ink

By ANTHONY MITCHELL, Associated Press Writer

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, Apr 10, 2005 (AP) — Voters can wipe off the supposedly indelible ink intended to prevent people from casting ballots twice in Ethiopia’s third-ever democratic election next month, the electoral chief said Sunday.

Authorities are now scrambling to find an ink that would mark fingers of those who cast their ballots with a stain that should last for some two weeks. It would replace the faulty ink that can mostly be rubbed off, said Kemal Bedri, chairman of the National Election Board.

“It is very fortunate that we discovered this now rather than on election day,” Kemal said. “It would have been disastrous.”

More than 25 million of Ethiopia’s 71 million people have registered to vote in legislative elections set for May 15. Some 35 political parties will vie for seats in the 548-seat Council of People’s Representatives.

Voters will also elect representatives in nine regional state parliaments that appoint members of the 108-seat Council of the Federation, the upper house.

The election will be the third democratic ballot in the history of Ethiopia’s, the only African country not to be colonized.

All the elections have been convincingly won by the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front. The governing party and affiliated parties hold 519 of 548 seats in the federal parliament.

Opposition parties already have accused the government of not providing a level playing field for the elections in which the ruling coalition is expected to prevail over the small, fragmented and underfunded opposition.