Elections without options in Ethiopia

By Thewodros Getachew 

     Election is an exclusive opportunity of making a decision by providing significant events for citizen to involve in public affairs.  It is a predictable and accepted mechanism for maintaining governmental accountability and determining leadership succession.  Election is a bridge for managing political competition and it is the interaction between governments and the governed. It can also validate existing regimes, leaders and policies.  Fair election contribution increasingly required not only for international legitimacy but also for domestic stability.  

           

          It is the system by which representative democracy has operated and   having a choices among different competitive political parties and candidates but peaceful political change, however without these element’s it is nothing but a staged election drama and these is what’s exactly happening in Ethiopia politics right now, a politics which have been driven miserably by EPRDF/TPLF the last 22 years.   Election has been manipulated in many different ways  by the ruling party, literally there is no possibility to have Free and Fair Election, the  lack of freedom of press  and  objectivity  due to state control, lack of access to  media while  freedom of speech has been curtailed by the government in favoring of state propaganda  .    Arrest or assassinate candidates, suppress or even criminalize campaigning, close campaign headquarters, harass or beat campaign workers, or intimidate voters with violence, misleading voters about how to vote, violation of the secret ballot,ballot stuffing , destruction of legitimately cast ballots, voters suppression , voter registration fraud, failure to validate voter residency, fraudulent tabulation of results, and use of physical force or verbal intimation at polling places and intimidation or physical violence .

                   

                 Although the International community recognized the importance of an opportunity to established genuine democracy in the Africa second populous country, a nation of more than 80 million people with technical assistance and substantial funding and generously and appropriately support the election process, the ruling party deliberately and systematically abort and ruined the process of election and declare victory by being a sole runner and winner of the election
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            Apparently,  the ruling party in Ethiopia uses fake and stagy elections drama  to deceive the international community and donors as if there are real democratic processes in the country, yet there is no genuine democracy or a sign of it in a country were ruled by the totalitarian regime recklessly claim a total victory but one out of 547 (99.6%) parliament seats in 2010 election, the perfect indication of their ultimate motive and determination to continue ruling over and destroying Ethiopia indefinitely.    

              

            Professor Alemayehu G. Mariam said about  the 2010 general election  in his article  The Madness of Ethiopia’s “2010 Elections”  «.....In the run-up to the 2010 “election” what we witness is a one-man, one-party dictatorship in which the ruling “EPDRF” party is astronomically “more equal” than all of the other opposition parties combined. The leaders of that party serve as prosecutor, judge, jury and executioner in all matters relating to elections. If fair and free elections are to take place, the ruling party and its leaders must accept in principle and in practice that the opposition political parties are their equals in the eyes of the law; and that their complete dominance of the society does not entitle them to harass, mistreat, abuse and persecute the opposition in the electoral process.    There is a huge equity gap between the ruling party and its leaders and the opposition. The rulers enjoy extraordinary legal and political privileges, advantages, benefits and entitlements because they literally own the political system. Their party members and leaders dominate the bureaucracies, the courts, the police forces and the local administrative structures. Most importantly, they own the election commission. It is a necessary precondition for a fair and free election that there be mechanisms in place to ensure all parties and stakeholders have equal opportunities to compete fairly for votes. Equitable principles require that the opposition receive and disseminate information freely, have access to state media on the same terms and conditions as the ruling party, be able to educate and canvass voters, hold meetings, conduct campaigns freely and vigorously engage fellow citizens to exercise their right to vote in an informed manner………………The ruling party’s contempt and disrespect for the opposition has its roots in the party leaders’ views that they came to power through the barrel of the gun, and that no one will take that power away from them through the ballot box. That is their fundamental existential problem…….”

          
                         Now once again, the regime staged   local election drama a week ago on  across the country, outrageously almost the only contenders in the election was the ruling party and its candidate’s , considering all  governmental institutions have been controlled by the regime members and  sympathizers, the lack of freedom of the press and objectivity due to state control or access to media and  the curtail over Freedom of speech by the government in favor of the state propaganda, the arrest or assassination candidates, suppress ,and the  exclusive privilege the ruling party  entertain in all aspects, FREE and FAIR ELECTION  is an implausible to say the least,  so the party widely expected to improve its record from 99.6% to 100% this time around and it will be  an absolute bluffing and insult  against democracy and election !!!