Voting Day Violations

The May 24, 2015, election was marred by mismanagement, from standing in lines to casting votes, from the city to rural parts of the country.

But the 59 AU observers, the only international observers that came to witness the election, after seeing the process in only 27 of the 44, 454 stations, said despite some irregularities, the election was calm, peaceful and credible.

Fortune concurs, that in spite of conflict which led to disruptive behaviour in several places, calm and peace did indeed prevail. However, the jury is out on the claim of credibility.

Election stations, which by law needed to be clear of any sign of campaigning, be it signs or posters within 500m radius, were seen with the election signs posted near the instruction boards and inside the voting rooms with major examples being Sike 02 election stations, Mehal Korga 01-B and Beshilo 01-A, both in Hadia Zone of the Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples Region (SNNPR), and Ajoo Bediyo station at Guder, in Western Shewa Zone, Oromia Region.

Many of the 18 stations Fortune observed outside Addis Abeba had the five public observers in place, but there were parties that did not have candidates’ representatives at some places.

In Guder, 137Km from Addis Abeba, the contesting parties Unity for Democracy & Justice (UDJ), All Ethiopian National Movement (AENM) and All Oromo People Democratic Party (AEPDP) had no representatives to follow the election process. Similarly, the representatives for Blue Party were not present in Hadia Zone Sike 02 election stations in Korga Cluster Kebele.

“It is because of financial constraints and failure of our candidates that we could not send our representatives,” Tigestu Awolu, president of the UDJ, told Fortune on the day of the election.

In the Hadia Zone Sike 02 stations, EPRDF, Medrek and UDJ each presented three candidates to run for the regional council while Blue Party had two. Each of the four presented one candidate for the parliament. Those registered to do so, were expected to start casting their votes at 6:00 a.m. AM but at the Mehal Korga station 01- B in Hadiya, voting started 45 minutes later.

“We came to the station at 5:30 a.m. and we were counting the papers and preparing the ballot box and the secret marking place,” said Tessema Matewos, the station’s election coordinator, explaining the delay.

Several polling stations in Addis Abeba also opened to voters 10 to 45 minutes later than the slated time.

Other irregularities were also observed in and around the stations. According to the amended electoral law, Proclamation No. 532/2007, no person may be present within a radius of 500m of the polling station while drunk, carrying a weapon or in any other situation disturbing the peace.

At Guder 01-A station, there were even two armed guards, standing at the gates of the station, who were then made to stand at a legitimate distance, when enquired about their presence. However, on Fortune’s return to that station it observed that they had returned to the gates.

Again in Ajoo Bedeyo-01 station, in walking distance from Guder town, in a rural area, dozens of local militias armed with rifles and sticks were at the site. The same holds true of Beshilo 01-A, where an armed police officer was wandering around the station.

At Mehal Korga 01-B, Fortune observed that the registration officer, Alemu Mengede, accompanied one voter into the voting booth, which he defended saying that he entered the secret place only to do his own voting, to save time for his service to other voters that had started coming.

“I went in to facilitate the election,” he said.

Aside from Medrek and Blue party, the Ethiopian Democratic Party (EDP) was also vocal in its criticism.

EDP had faced many irregularities in its constituency Tis Abbay Zenlem, to the extent that people were assigned and seated inside the voting booth, ordering voters to elect this and that, Chane Kebede (PhD), president of EDP told Fortune. He further criticised the reports of civic associations as well as the AU, stating that their report had a gap in terms of assessing and reflecting the real features of the voting day.

At the other station in Mehal Korga 01-A, voters were not even using the booth, but marking the ballot cards together in groups of as many as eight people.

“Up to five people are being sent into the secret paper marking place at once, totally against the electoral system of the country,” said Samuel Alago, Medrek’s candidate representative at Beshilo 01-A station.

The age of the voters was also an issue debated at the nine stations in Korga, Hadiya. However, only one girl was made to leave without voting.

“We did not ask for an ID or other verification document but asked the parents and the observers and give them the electoral cards,” says Mulatu Molla, the station’s coordinator, explaining how those young voters were registered in the first place. “We also see their physical appearance and give the cards if the boys have beards and the girls have breasts.”

Ashenafi Nigussie, one of those disputed voters, started going to school when he was seven and is now in grade four.

“I do not know my age other than what my father told me, he said.

His father insists that his son was qualified to vote.

“I do not remember the year he was born but he is 18,” he said.

Ashenafi was there with a classmate, Habtamu Lirenso, in the same situation.

At Kumudo station, one voter was given two ballot cards each for the parliament and the regional council. However, this was noted and stopped by the Medrek representative.

“I have seen this and he was sent off after casting his right vote,” said Shakiso Gagiyo, a public observer at the place.

Simeon Kotaro, the station’s coordinator, argues that it was not deliberate.

“There were many people that came to cast their votes early and rush to church, which might have caused the mistake,” he says.

With all these discrepancies in the voting process, the election reached its conclusion when the stations closed at six in the evening with some starting to count the votes immediately after, while others took a break for as long as an hour for food.

At Guder 01 station the counting ended at 11:55 p.m. Unmarked ballot cards and those with the “X” mark or the fingerprint in the wrong place were voided.

“The process went well and we have no reservations,” said Aman Kedir, representative of Medrek at Guder 01. But this is in contrast to what the leadership of Medrek say.

“Generally in Oromia it is not election but planned burglary- our observers have been beaten and jailed,” said Merara Gudina, head of external relation for Medrek. “An election that is held without observers is a one party election.”

Also his colleague at Guder station 01-B, nevertheless, would leave the station before the counting, disagreeing with the conduct of the election.

At Hadiya, there was a similar mood, with some candidate representatives for Medrek refusing to sign the minute papers, some of them walking out before the counting began.

“I will not sign; the election is not totally fair and it has been held despite our protest when Woreda cabinet members disturbed the queue and forced the people to vote for EPRDF,” said Tesfaye Angora, Medrek’s representative at Mehal Korga 01-A station.

But the public observers at this site denied the occurrence of any such incident.

In Abuka 01-A station, Medrek candidate’s representative Tilahun Weyiso, left the station before the count, after his colleagues from the party came to get him, according to the election coordinator at the site.

The reason for Medrek’s representatives leaving the stations was more serious, according to the coalition’s chief.

“We have taken some of our representatives out of the election stations as it was threatening to their life,” said Beyene Petros (Prof.), Chairman of Medrek.

At Mehal Korga 01-A station, Fortune observed the EPRDF representative and two of the stations’ electoral officials were marking many unmarked ballot cards for EPRDF. The observers, under whose nose this was happening, did nothing about it. At last the remaining 44 unmarked cards were equally divided, and half marked for EPRDF and the other half for Medrek.

Fortune also observed another way of treating “voided” ballot cards, which had unauthorised marks, such as signatures, or the right sign at the wrong place. Those cards in favour of the EPRDF were all counted as right, whereas those for Medrek were rejected.

All together, Fortune visited nine polling stations in Hadiya and Eastern Bedewachu in the South and nine at Ambo and Guder in Oromia. The preliminary report for these and other stations nationwide was released on Wednesday May 27, 2015, by the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE), breaking the news that all of the 23 seats for Addis Abeba and 442 of the 547 seats in the parliament had gone to EPRDF, enabling it to form the government for the next five years. The results for government project sites, such as the Great Renaissance Dam, military and higher education institutions are expected to be announced in June.

Following the announcement, Medrek spoke out in protest of the results of the preliminary report stating that there was not multi party system in the country that there was no legitimate election but mere drama.

Similar to Medrek, Blue party also declared its decision to completely reject the results at a press briefing held at its headquarters in Kazanchis, and attended by local and international journalists. The briefing was given by Yilikal Getenet and Sileshi Feyissa, president and vice president of the party, respectively, and Yonathan Tesfaye, public relations head of the party.

“We will not take our claims to court or any other institution because we do not think there is an independent body,” said Yonathan.

But NEBE’s chairman, Merga Bekana (Prof.) downplays violations that occurred in different places.

“The incidents that happened in one or two stations are normal,” he remarked, on the announcement of the preliminary results.

But for Beyene Petros (Prof.), that seems to be it.

“I will not be running again in such extremist politics, which is like playing with fire,” Beyene told Fortune. “I am satisfied with what I have seen so far as I was in direct contact with the people.”

Expressing feelings of hopelessness of the “whole process and the narrow political arena,” he said he would not contest elections anymore as he had seen so much in 24 years of running for the parliament and winning in two of them.

But EPRDF’s Reday Halefom, head of public relations, argues the political arena is getting better from time to time.

“When we see the yardsticks, the political playground is better than what was before- be it in terms of number of political parties, expression of ideas, and access to campaign budget to political parties,” Reday reasons out. “No political party can win EPRDF contesting with the development that we showed; their arguments are based on mere fantasies.”

Furthermore, Reday says the election was free and fair, which the party was working on.

“We won not because of only the campaigning process but also with the whole development that we registered in the economy,” Reday told Fortune. “We have also used more than 99pc of the media spaces allotted to the party.”

Reday says that the aim of democracy is not forming a grievance free system but establishing ways by which grievances can be addressed.

In the aftermath of the election the advice contained in the AU Observers report is quite pertinent.

“The AU Electoral Mission encourages political parties, candidates, their supporters and the electorate to maintain the prevailing atmosphere of peace that characterised pre-election and election day and urges the use of the legal channels of complaints and appeals should there be any post-electoral disputes,” said the Head of Mission, Hifikepunye Pohamba, former president of the Republic of Namibia.

(LUCY KASSA and SNETSEHAY ASSEFA, FORTUNE STAFF WRITERS contributed to this stroy)


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