(By Simegnish Yekoye/ SSI) ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia- The upcoming 2010 Ethiopian election is only months away with the Ethiopian government saying the elections would be conducted peaceful, however the Ethiopian opposition parties are not sure on whether they would compete in the upcoming elections- as they accuse government of strong arming them.
According to the current timetable by National Election Board, parties are required to have names of their candidates registered until the end of November 2009. Opposition parties on the other hand don’t seem to feel the same way. Many of the oppositions who are planning to take part in the election say they are already facing harassments and ‘undemocratic actions’ being perpetuated on them by the ruling party.
Since the new election law was ratified by parliament, parties doubt the possibility of holding free election. Now only months away, parties haven’t still decided whether they are going to fully participate in the upcoming election and how they are going to proceed.
According to Temesgen Zewede, member of Unity for Democracy and Justice (UDJ), no matter how much his party wants to have free and democratic elections, he fears the new election law and party affiliated institutions will not allow that to happen.
“The ruling party purposely comes up with laws that draw a line to our right of participating in democratic election,” Temesgen argues.
Temesgen says his party is already facing difficulties as it is not able to open branch offices and its members get arrested and harassed by ruling party members.
“Our participation in the coming election depends on whether the government is willing to discuss on the binding law of election,” says Parliament representative of United Ethiopia Democratic Front (UEDF), Professor Beyene Petros.
“So far the government isn’t interested to sit and talk with us. It just wants to kill time and at the eleventh hour, they might say now we can talk. This is their usual tactic”
UEDF party hasn’t started any preparation for the election. Professor Beyene says unless the government sits and negotiates with them on how they can ease the election law, there might be a chance that will not take part at all.
“How can we get ready for an election when we can’t get close to our people and talk to them on what they want?” asks Bulcha Demekessa, chairman of the Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement.
Bulcha says his party members cannot move anywhere outside Addis Ababa and open offices as they will be harassed by government people.
“We don’t have money, we don’t have offices and there is dispute everywhere. This doesn’t allow us to get ready for anything”.
The new political party law also compels parties that are to take part in the election to announce their sources of finance. No matter how much oppositions have strongly opposed the law, it was ratified with a majority vote in parliament.
“If the law is also applicable for the ruling party, I don’t think we will have a problem with announcing our source of income. But it would be a problem if it is only applicable for opposition parties,” Temesgen says.
Though the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development (MOFED) has agreed to allocate money for party financing, the money is still withheld as the National Election board (NEB) hasn’t giving the breakdown for the budget. But once it is decided and parties are provided with the money, parties are obliged not to withdraw from the election.
“We aren’t going to accept such a binding rule,” Bulcha warns. “We are only hoping NBE will lift such an obligatory rule that gets into our right of exercising democracy.”
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