EPRDF suddenly changes funding law to punish opposition boycott of election
- "How could one party give the money back if it campaigned and spent the money, but was then forced to withdraw because of harassment and intimidation?" - Bulcha Demeksa of OFDM
A regulation to bring in public funding for political parties for the first time in the nation’s history was introduced late last week, but a last minute addition to the draft left the opposition and ruling party in disagreement.
Drafted by the National Electorate Board of Ethiopia (NEBE), the landmark regulation details criteria by which registered political parties can access their share from the Federal Government.
Various political parties’ representatives debated the draft which would allow all parties to access funding for election periods, last Friday. A second type of aid, financing for daily operations, will only be available to those that have representations in federal or regional parliament, a stipulation the opposition claims discourages newly established, or yet to be formed, parties.
From the support for day to day operations, 90 per cent will be distributed based on the number of seats in parliament occupied, while the balance will be equally divided between all parties in parliament.
Ten per cent of the share for the election period will be divided among all parties, while another ten per cent will be given to those parties with more women candidates. “Though we do want to include as many women candidates as possible, we can not change the culture of our country overnight, so using this as a basis to deny funding is hardly a helping move,” Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement (OFDM) chair Bulcha Demeksa (MP) remarked about the stipulation.
The more contentious aspect is the sharing out of another 55 per cent proportional to the number of seats parties have in parliaments, and apportioning the remaining 25 per cent based on the number of candidates a party is to put up for election. While the ruling Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) welcomes the stipulation it says fairly rewards parties that are being accepted by the public through elections, opposition parties regard the move as intentionally designed by the ruling party to solidify their domination. “The role of such public funding should be to build capacity for all parties so that they can fairly contest in elections. The idea is not to keep the status quo resulting from previous elections,” Birru Birmeji (MP), Unity for Democracy and Justice Party (UDJ) elections affairs committee head, explains, “particularly for us, as a new party, and also since the Federal Parliament does not want to recognize our forty MPs as a parliamentary group, it would seriously discourage us, as it will any new party yet to be established,” Birru added.
“This funding is a subsidy to help political parties, not the funding political parties would entirely depend on,” Hailemariam Desalgen (MP), Government Whip at the Federal Parliament said, rejecting the opposition’s claim. “Funds for parties should mainly come from their members, supporters and fundraising events. This public fund is set up to help these kind of efforts and this regulation, which the electoral board benchmarked against over 120 countries, is rather generous to parties with no seats in parliament. “While international practice shows that such funding has a 70-90 per cent share given to those parties with more seats in the house, this only puts that figure at 55,” Hailemariam added. Initiated by last year’s amended political parties’ registration bill, the electoral board’s regulation was appreciated by the ruling party, but it too had a recommendation it planned to present before last Friday’s meeting. “The International practice is that parties put money in when they participate in elections, which would be returned when the elections is over, but since no party could do that now we didn’t push that far, but, however, the public funding that would be diverted to the parties should hold them accountable,” Hailemariam explained to Capital. “Whenever parties withdraw from elections, which is their right, it is only appropriate for them to return the money they said they would use for electoral purposes only.” The electoral board introduced a similar amendment to draft regulation article 17 that made the same request as the subsequent EPRDF recommendation. However, this was overwhelmingly rejected by the opposition majority.
While OFDM withdrew from the latest bi and local elections after participating in the first round, Professor Beyene Petros’s party, United Ethiopian Democratic Forces, pulled out of elections just before they started, though both had campaigned for weeks.
Both groups accused the ruling party’s officials of intimidating their supporters and candidates, resulting in their withdrawals.
“If you leave due to your own reasons it is right to return the money you planned to use for the elections, but how could one party give the money back if it campaigned and spent the money, but was then forced to withdraw because of harassment and intimidation?” MP Bulcha questioned.
UDJ representative MP Birru agrees with Bulcha: “This last minute change on the bill was intentionally done so that all the parties, with the intimidation and severe harassment they may suffer, are forced to participate in elections just to keep the ruling party company,” the MP added.
