Ethiopian general elections, 2005
Encyclopedia
Ethiopia
held general elections
on May 15, 2005, for seats in both its national and in four regional government councils. Under pressure from the international community, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi
promised that this election would be proof that more democracy would come in this multi-ethnic nation; international elections observers from the European Union
(EU) and the U.S.
-based Carter Center
were present to observe the results. This election succeeded in attracting about 90% of the registered voters to the polls. A government ban on protests was imposed throughout the election period.
, one by the EPRDF and one by the opposition."
Despite this, opposition parties alleged numerous cases of intimidation, and arrests of its supporters. While the EU observers could not investigate all of the alleged cases, it did confirm those it investigated. International human rights groups likewise cataloged a number of cases of human rights violations. However, the EU observers wrote in their final report, they "recorded no arrests of EPRDF supporters for campaign offences."
Towards the close of the campaigning, the language became more vicious, with each side accusing the other of numerous violations of the campaigning rules. "Campaign rhetoric became insulting," the EU observer's report noted, then continued:
(EPRDF) announced that it had won more than 317 seats out of 547, while conceding that opposition parties won all 23 seats in the capital city Addis Ababa
. The two major opposition parties, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy
(CUD) and the United Ethiopian Democratic Forces
(UEDF) claimed on that same day that they had won 185 of the approximately 200 seats for which the National Election Board of Ethiopia
(NEBE) had released preliminary results. That was a significant improvement over the 12 seats the opposition had in the previous parliament.
By law, the NEBE was required to announce the official results on 8 June. However, the vote tallying process was jeopardized when the opposition claimed that the Addis Ababa vote was rigged and during the evening of 16 May, the Prime Minister declared a state of emergency, outlawed any public gathering, assumed direct command of the security forces, and replaced the capital city police with federal police and special forces drawn from elite army units. The NEBE, simultaneously, ordered the vote tallying process to stop, an order which was not rescinded for nearly a week, yet another action against which the opposition and the independent election monitors strongly objected.
The next official report from the NEBE, released on 27 May, showed that the EPRDF had won 209 seats, and affiliated parties 12 more. The report indicated the opposition parties had won 142 seats. "These results are provisional, and these results could change because we are looking into complaints by some of the parties," said NEBE spokesman Getahun Amogne.
The situation only deteriorated with the following day, according to the observers,
The CUD lodged complaints in 139 constituencies, the UEDF lodged 89 complaints, while the EPRDF has raised concerns over irregularities in more than 50 seats. Including the complaints lodged by small parties, complaints concerning the results in 299 parliamentary seats were lodged. According to an official of the NEBE, political parties had until June 3 to provide evidence of fraud, or their complaints would be dismissed. However investigations led to elections being re-run at a minimum of 16 voting stations, and affecting elections for at least six seats. Writing in November of that year, scholar Christopher Clapham noted that "the official results of the elections are both complex in themselves, and deeply affected by fraud". On one hand, he pointed out that the EPRDF lost heavily in those cities of Ethiopia which were bellwethers of public opinion; on the other,
Provisional results were scheduled to be released on May 23, but the need to investigate claims of voting irregularities and disruptions in two southern regions
— Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Region and Oromia — delayed the release of these results until June 8, the date originally scheduled for releasing the official results. When the ruling party was unofficially reported the winner of the election, demonstrations protesting alleged election fraud broke out, and continued into June. Hundreds of students were arrested in at least nine cities, including Gondar
, Bure
, Bahir Dar
, Debre Marqos
, Dessie
and Awassa for demonstrating despite a month-old ban on protests imposed on the government. At the same time, security forces arrested dozens of locally prominent CUD members in Gondar, Dessie, Wondo Genet
, Kombolcha
and Jinka
; unconfirmed reports of arrests following a similar pattern came from several other towns. On June 8, police shot 42 people gathering at the Piazza and Merkato markets of Addis Ababa. The government afterwards stated that an appropriate level of force was used and accused the CUD of fomenting dissent; the CUD denied these accusations, and claimed that the government was attempting to distract attention from election fraud. This led to the leaders of the CUD, including head Hailu Shawul
, being put under house arrest while hundreds of security forces patrolled the streets of the capital.
, vice-chairman of the CUD, had criticized the process on July 20, claiming that "The investigation process was a complete failure. Our representatives and witnesses have been harassed, threatened, barred and killed upon their return from the hearings."
Meanwhile, the NEBE investigated voting fraud and other irregularities, while also arranging new polls to resolve some disputes. On August 9, official results were released, acknowledging that the ruling EPRDF had won 296 of the total 524 seats — about 56% — enabling it to form a government, while its allied parties won 22 seats. The UEDF won 52 seats. Berhanu said his party, which had officially won 109 seats, was debating whether they would challenge the results in court. Repeat elections were scheduled for August 21 in 31 areas where either irregularities were reported or results were challenged.
Opposition parties had decided to boycott the related August 21 elections in the Somali Region
. The CUD withdrew 10 of the 17 candidates it was fielding in Somali region, while the Western Somali Democratic Party
, the Somali Democratic Alliance Forces and Del Wabe People's Democratic Movement who had planned to field 43 candidates for the Federal Parliamentary Assembly
and 273 candidates for the regional parliament in the regional capital of Jijiga
, also announced that they would boycott this election.
On September 5, the NEBE released its final results, in which the EPRDF retained its control of the government with 327 seats, or 59 % of the vote. Opposition parties won 174 seats, or 32 % of the vote. The CUD alone won 20 % of the vote.
(AP). It concludes that a total of 199 people (193 civilians and six policemen) were killed and 763 were injured, a significantly higher figure than the Ehtiopian government's claim that 61 civilians and seven policemen were killed. The vice chairman of the inquiry, judge Wolde-Michael Meshesha, who fled Ethiopia a month prior after he had received anonymous death threats, told AP that "this was a massacre ... these demonstrators were unarmed yet the majority died from shots to the head." He added that the government attempted to pressure and intimidate members of the inquiry after learning about its controversial finding. The Ethiopian government did not immediately comment on the leaked report, but the next day, it told BBC
that its contents were "hearsay." The European Union
's chief observer during the elections, Ana Maria Gomes
, stated that the draft report "only confirms what we have said in our report on the elections," and "that indeed there were massive human rights violations."
Ethiopia
Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
held general elections
Elections in Ethiopia
At the federal level, Ethiopia elects a legislature. The Federal Parliamentary Assembly has two chambers: the Council of People's Representatives with not more than 550 members as per the constitution but actually nearly 547 members, elected for five-year terms in single-seat constituencies; and...
on May 15, 2005, for seats in both its national and in four regional government councils. Under pressure from the international community, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi
Meles Zenawi
Meles Zenawi Asres is the Prime Minister of Ethiopia. Since 1985, he has been chairman of the Tigrayan Peoples' Liberation Front , and is currently head of the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front .Meles was born in Adwa, Tigray in Northern Ethiopia, to an Ethiopian father from...
promised that this election would be proof that more democracy would come in this multi-ethnic nation; international elections observers from the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
(EU) and the U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
-based Carter Center
Carter Center
The Carter Center is a nongovernmental, not-for-profit organization founded in 1982 by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn Carter. In partnership with Emory University, The Carter Center works to advance human rights and alleviate human suffering...
were present to observe the results. This election succeeded in attracting about 90% of the registered voters to the polls. A government ban on protests was imposed throughout the election period.
Campaigning
EU observers remarked on the "significantly enlarged freedoms for political campaigning in comparison to previous elections". Political parties campaigned actively, and opposition parties appeared to be increasingly active in the rural areas. The observer mission described the atmosphere "during the campaign was calm, culminating in two massive, peaceful rallies in Addis AbabaAddis Ababa
Addis Ababa is the capital city of Ethiopia...
, one by the EPRDF and one by the opposition."
Despite this, opposition parties alleged numerous cases of intimidation, and arrests of its supporters. While the EU observers could not investigate all of the alleged cases, it did confirm those it investigated. International human rights groups likewise cataloged a number of cases of human rights violations. However, the EU observers wrote in their final report, they "recorded no arrests of EPRDF supporters for campaign offences."
Towards the close of the campaigning, the language became more vicious, with each side accusing the other of numerous violations of the campaigning rules. "Campaign rhetoric became insulting," the EU observer's report noted, then continued:
The most extreme example of this came from the Deputy Prime Minister, Addisu Legesse, who, in a public debate on 15 April, compared the opposition parties with the Interhamwe militia, which perpetrated the 1994 Rwandan genocideRwandan GenocideThe Rwandan Genocide was the 1994 mass murder of an estimated 800,000 people in the small East African nation of Rwanda. Over the course of approximately 100 days through mid-July, over 500,000 people were killed, according to a Human Rights Watch estimate...
. The Prime Minister made the same comparison on 5 May in relation to the CUD. The EPRDF made the same associations during its free slots on radio and TV. The opposition coalition UEDF then used the comparison against the government in a TV spot showing footage of the movie "Hotel RwandaHotel RwandaHotel Rwanda is a 2004 American drama film directed by Terry George. It was adapted from a screenplay written by both George and Keir Pearson. Based on real life events which took place in Rwanda during the spring of 1994, the film stars Don Cheadle as hotelier Paul Rusesabagina, who attempts to...
". Such rhetoric is unacceptable in a democratic election.
Early results
Early results showed the opposition with a big lead, sweeping all of the contested seats in the capital Addis both in the race for parliamentary as well as local government. By the afternoon of 16 May, the opposition claimed it was halfway towards winning a majority in the national parliament with only about a third of the constituencies reporting complete results. Later that day, trailing badly in the preliminary report covering just under 200 seats released by the National Election Board, the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic FrontEthiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front
The Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front is the ruling political coalition in Ethiopia. It is an alliance of four other groups: the Oromo Peoples' Democratic Organization , the Amhara National Democratic Movement , the South Ethiopian Peoples' Democratic Front The Ethiopian People's...
(EPRDF) announced that it had won more than 317 seats out of 547, while conceding that opposition parties won all 23 seats in the capital city Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa is the capital city of Ethiopia...
. The two major opposition parties, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy
Coalition for Unity and Democracy
The Coalition for Unity and Democracy is a coalition of four existing political parties of Ethiopia which combined to compete for seats in the Ethiopian General Elections held on May 15, 2005. Its leader is Dr...
(CUD) and the United Ethiopian Democratic Forces
United Ethiopian Democratic Forces
The United Ethiopian Democratic Forces is a coalition of several existing political parties of Ethiopia which combined to compete for seats in the Ethiopian General Elections held on May 15, 2005....
(UEDF) claimed on that same day that they had won 185 of the approximately 200 seats for which the National Election Board of Ethiopia
National Election Board of Ethiopia
The National Election Board of Ethiopia is an autonomous government agency which supervises the national elections of Ethiopia. The NEBE was established by Proclamation number 64/1992, and answers to the House of Peoples' Representatives....
(NEBE) had released preliminary results. That was a significant improvement over the 12 seats the opposition had in the previous parliament.
By law, the NEBE was required to announce the official results on 8 June. However, the vote tallying process was jeopardized when the opposition claimed that the Addis Ababa vote was rigged and during the evening of 16 May, the Prime Minister declared a state of emergency, outlawed any public gathering, assumed direct command of the security forces, and replaced the capital city police with federal police and special forces drawn from elite army units. The NEBE, simultaneously, ordered the vote tallying process to stop, an order which was not rescinded for nearly a week, yet another action against which the opposition and the independent election monitors strongly objected.
The next official report from the NEBE, released on 27 May, showed that the EPRDF had won 209 seats, and affiliated parties 12 more. The report indicated the opposition parties had won 142 seats. "These results are provisional, and these results could change because we are looking into complaints by some of the parties," said NEBE spokesman Getahun Amogne.
Alleged voting irregularities
Observers from the European Union afterwards "assessed the closing and counting processes negatively in almost half of urban polling stations observed, a very high figure for international observers to record, and even worse in rural polling stations observed." Counting was slow, a remarkably high number of ballots were ruled invalid, and there was a lack of transparency in the results. "Result sheets were only displayed at 29 per cent of rural polling stations observed and 36 per cent of urban polling stations observed at the completion of counting. In 25 per cent of polling stations observed, political party representatives were not provided with a copy of the results."The situation only deteriorated with the following day, according to the observers,
starting with a blanket ban, issued immediately after the end of voting, on freedom of assembly in the capital. Media coverage also worsened. State media published statements by government/EPRDF personnel claiming victory in the elections, despite the fact that counting was still underway, but refused to publish opposition statements. Incidents involving students started on the night of 5 June and extended on 6 and 7 June with hundreds being arrested. During a demonstration in Addis AbabaAddis AbabaAddis Ababa is the capital city of Ethiopia...
on 8 June, security forces killed at least 36 citizens and in the aftermath arrested thousands of persons, mostly linked to the opposition, who were accused of spreading "political unrest".
The CUD lodged complaints in 139 constituencies, the UEDF lodged 89 complaints, while the EPRDF has raised concerns over irregularities in more than 50 seats. Including the complaints lodged by small parties, complaints concerning the results in 299 parliamentary seats were lodged. According to an official of the NEBE, political parties had until June 3 to provide evidence of fraud, or their complaints would be dismissed. However investigations led to elections being re-run at a minimum of 16 voting stations, and affecting elections for at least six seats. Writing in November of that year, scholar Christopher Clapham noted that "the official results of the elections are both complex in themselves, and deeply affected by fraud". On one hand, he pointed out that the EPRDF lost heavily in those cities of Ethiopia which were bellwethers of public opinion; on the other,
- some of the constituencies declared for the EPRDF defy any plausible assessment of public opinion in the areas concerned: that it should have won about half of the seats both in SidamaSidama ZoneSidama is a Zone in the Ethiopian Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region . It is named for the Sidama people, whose homeland is located in this zone...
and in western WelegaMirab Welega ZoneMirab Welega is one of the 12 Zones in the Ethiopian Region of Oromia. This zone is named after the former province of Welega, whose western part lay in the area Mirab Misraq now occupies....
, for instance, is entirely incredible. In Sidama, as a result of the May 2002 massacre, and in western Welega, as the heartland of OLFOromo Liberation FrontThe Oromo Liberation Front , or OLF, is an organization established in 1973 by Oromo nationalists to promote self-determination for the Oromo people against what they call "Abyssinian colonial rule". It has been outlawed and labeled as a terrorist organization by the Ethiopian government...
support, hostility to the regime runs very deep, and the declared results can only be the result either of heavy-handed government pressure before and during the vote, or else of fraud after it.
Provisional results were scheduled to be released on May 23, but the need to investigate claims of voting irregularities and disruptions in two southern regions
Regions of Ethiopia
||Ethiopia is divided into 9 ethnically-based administrative regions and two chartered cities...
— Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Region and Oromia — delayed the release of these results until June 8, the date originally scheduled for releasing the official results. When the ruling party was unofficially reported the winner of the election, demonstrations protesting alleged election fraud broke out, and continued into June. Hundreds of students were arrested in at least nine cities, including Gondar
Gondar
Gondar or Gonder is a city in Ethiopia, which was once the old imperial capital and capital of the historic Begemder Province. As a result, the old province of Begemder is sometimes referred to as Gondar...
, Bure
Bure
-Belgium:*Bure, Belgium, a small village in the Belgian province of Luxembourg, known for the Chantoir de Bure.-Ethiopia:*Bure, Africa is a town on the disputed border between Eritrea and Ethiopia....
, Bahir Dar
Bahir Dar
Bahir Dar is a city in north western Ethiopia. It is the capital of the Amhara Region .Administratively, Bahir Dar is considered a Special Zone, placing it midway between Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa which are organized as chartered cities , and cities like Debre Marqos and Dessie, which are...
, Debre Marqos
Debre Marqos
Debre Marqos is a city and woreda in east-central Ethiopia. Located in the Misraq Gojjam Zone of the Amhara Region, it has a latitude and longitude of , and an elevation of 2,446 meters. The city is named Debre Marqos after its principal church, which was constructed in 1869 and dedicated to St....
, Dessie
Dessie
Dessie is a city and a woreda in north-central Ethiopia. Located on the Addis Ababa - Asmara highway in the Debub Wollo Zone of the Amhara Region, this city has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation between 2,470 and 2,550 meters above sea level.Dessie has postal service , and telephone...
and Awassa for demonstrating despite a month-old ban on protests imposed on the government. At the same time, security forces arrested dozens of locally prominent CUD members in Gondar, Dessie, Wondo Genet
Wondo Genet
Wondo Genet is a resort town in Ethiopia. Located southeast of Shashemene in the Sidama Zone of the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples' Region, with a latitude and longitude of and an elevation of 1723 meters....
, Kombolcha
Kombolcha
Kombolcha is a city and woreda in north-central Ethiopia. Located in the Debub Wollo Zone of the Amhara Region, it has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation between 1842 and 1915 meters above sea level...
and Jinka
Jinka
Jinka is a market town in southern Ethiopia. Located in the hills north of the Tama Plains, this town is the capital of the Debub Omo Zone of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Region and Bako Gazer woreda. Jinka has a latitude and longitude of and an elevation of 1490 meters above...
; unconfirmed reports of arrests following a similar pattern came from several other towns. On June 8, police shot 42 people gathering at the Piazza and Merkato markets of Addis Ababa. The government afterwards stated that an appropriate level of force was used and accused the CUD of fomenting dissent; the CUD denied these accusations, and claimed that the government was attempting to distract attention from election fraud. This led to the leaders of the CUD, including head Hailu Shawul
Hailu Shawul
Hailu Shawul is an Ethiopian engineer and the chairman of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy . He was born in Northern Shewa....
, being put under house arrest while hundreds of security forces patrolled the streets of the capital.
Official results
On July 8, the NEBE released the first official results for 307 of the 547 national parliamentary seats. Of the 307 seats, the EPRDF had won 139, while CUD and UEDF won 93 and 42, respectively. Smaller parties and independent candidates won the remaining 33 seats. However, Berhanu NegaBerhanu Nega
Berhanu Nega was elected as mayor of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in the Ethiopian general elections, 2005. He is a founding chairman of the Rainbow Ethiopia: Movement for Democracy and Social Justice and a Deputy Chairman of Coalition for Unity and Democracy , for whom he served as chief election...
, vice-chairman of the CUD, had criticized the process on July 20, claiming that "The investigation process was a complete failure. Our representatives and witnesses have been harassed, threatened, barred and killed upon their return from the hearings."
Meanwhile, the NEBE investigated voting fraud and other irregularities, while also arranging new polls to resolve some disputes. On August 9, official results were released, acknowledging that the ruling EPRDF had won 296 of the total 524 seats — about 56% — enabling it to form a government, while its allied parties won 22 seats. The UEDF won 52 seats. Berhanu said his party, which had officially won 109 seats, was debating whether they would challenge the results in court. Repeat elections were scheduled for August 21 in 31 areas where either irregularities were reported or results were challenged.
Opposition parties had decided to boycott the related August 21 elections in the Somali Region
Somali Region
Somali Region ; is the eastern-most of the nine ethnic divisions of Ethiopia. It is often called Somalia, though it is not to be confused with the independent country of the same name. The capital of Somali State is Jijiga...
. The CUD withdrew 10 of the 17 candidates it was fielding in Somali region, while the Western Somali Democratic Party
Western Somali Democratic Party
Western Somali Democratic Party is a political party in Ethiopia. It emerged out of the Western Somali Liberation Front in 1975...
, the Somali Democratic Alliance Forces and Del Wabe People's Democratic Movement who had planned to field 43 candidates for the Federal Parliamentary Assembly
Federal Parliamentary Assembly
The Parliament of Ethiopia consists of two chambers:*The House of Federation *The House of People's Representatives...
and 273 candidates for the regional parliament in the regional capital of Jijiga
Jijiga
Jijiga is a city in eastern Ethiopia and the capital of the Somali Region of that country. Located in the Jijiga Zone approximately 80 km east of Harar and 60 km west of the border with Somalia, this city has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation of 1,609 meters above sea...
, also announced that they would boycott this election.
On September 5, the NEBE released its final results, in which the EPRDF retained its control of the government with 327 seats, or 59 % of the vote. Opposition parties won 174 seats, or 32 % of the vote. The CUD alone won 20 % of the vote.
Protest
Protests of the results, led by Coalition for Democracy and Unity, began on November 1, 2005, and have prompted more than 60,000 arrests. Live gunfire from government forces has been directed at protesters and bystanders, killing at least 42. A number of policemen were also killed suggesting that violence was not all on the side of the state.Massacre claims and public inquiry
On October 18, 2006, the draft report of a 10-member public inquiry into election-related unrests was released to Associated PressAssociated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
(AP). It concludes that a total of 199 people (193 civilians and six policemen) were killed and 763 were injured, a significantly higher figure than the Ehtiopian government's claim that 61 civilians and seven policemen were killed. The vice chairman of the inquiry, judge Wolde-Michael Meshesha, who fled Ethiopia a month prior after he had received anonymous death threats, told AP that "this was a massacre ... these demonstrators were unarmed yet the majority died from shots to the head." He added that the government attempted to pressure and intimidate members of the inquiry after learning about its controversial finding. The Ethiopian government did not immediately comment on the leaked report, but the next day, it told BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
that its contents were "hearsay." The European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
's chief observer during the elections, Ana Maria Gomes
Ana Maria Gomes
Ana Maria Rosa Martins Gomes, better known as Ana Gomes, GCC , is a Portuguese politician, who suspended her career as a diplomat to enter party politics in 2003. In 2004, she was elected as a Member of the European Parliament and was reelected in June 2009...
, stated that the draft report "only confirms what we have said in our report on the elections," and "that indeed there were massive human rights violations."
External links
- Christopher Clapham, "Comments on the Ethiopian Crisis" (MediaEthiopia.com)
Poll-related
- National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE)
- Angus Reid Consultants - Election Tracker
- International Herald Tribune coverage
- Reuters Alternet May 17 coverage
- Carter Center statement on the Election
- Reuters Alternet May 27 coverage
- Ethiopians shot dead in protests, BBCBBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, 8 June 2005 - Ethiopia Political Unrest Leaves 20 Dead, Washington Post, 8 June 2005
- Crackdown on media amid election controversy, IFEXInternational Freedom of Expression ExchangeThe International Freedom of Expression eXchange , founded in 1992, is a global network of around 90 non-governmental organisations that promotes and defends the right to freedom of expression....
- First Ethiopia poll results drawn, BBC NewsBBC NewsBBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online...
, 8 July 2005 - Opposition rejects final election results, IRIN
- Opposition parties to boycott Somali region polls, IRIN
- Ruling party named winner in final result of disputed poll, IRIN, 5 September 2005