Although the fourth local election for Weredas and kebelles across the country starts on April 14, it has been the campaigns for the City Administration Council for Addis Abeba, going to the polls on the same day, that have captured the hot, cold, and neutral politics of opposition parties.
The deadline for the end of campaigning was Friday April 12, 2013. The 11 parties that registered candidates for the city have since rested their fates in the hands of the voter. The parties, and their respective candidates, have tried to present their hopes for the future the capital using the avenues made available by the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE).
With the polls opening nationally at 6 am, voting will be underway for the Kebele and Wereda Councils and City Administrations of eight regional states. The ninth state, the Southern Regional States, which will be hosting elections for Zone and Wereda Councils (South Region uses the delineation of Zone for District and Kebelle for Wereda) will have two days of voting. Zone and Wereda elections will take place today, Sunday April 14, 2013, whilst the voting for its Kebelle Administration will take place on April 21, 2013.
Addis Abeba and Dire Dawa cities, which are federally chartered, will be holding elections for their respective District Councils and City Administration Council. While Dire Dawa will be holding both of its elections on the same day as the rest of the nation, Addis Abeba, like SNNPRS, will be breaking up its elections into two parts. While the voters can choose their new City Administration Council and District Councils today, they will have to wait until April 21, 2013 to vote for the Wereda Councils. The capital no longer has kebelles in its administrative set up and will not host a kebelle level election, unlike the last nationwide local elections.
The 116 Weredas in Addis Abeba have 300 seats each. Upon the announcement of the election results the winning candidates will be assigned to the District under which their respective Wereda falls.
The bulk of the 3.6 million candidates registered for the local elections falls to the EPRDF, the incumbent, according to Yisma Jiru, deputy public relations officer of the NEBE. Close to 35,000 candidates are registered to run for Wereda, district and city administration councils of Addis Ababa. 393 of the candidates will be competing for the 138 seats in the Addis Abeba City Council. EPRDF has Filed 138 candidates, while the remaining 255 candidates are from the 11 opposition parties. Opposition parties have not presented candidates for the Wereda and district councils of the city.
Despite the fact that the elections are taking place on a national level and spanning across Weredas and kebelles in the nine regions, the race for the capital city seems hotter, playing host to mobile loudspeakers and street events.
Opposition party candidates cruised the city atop Isuzu trucks and minibuses outfitted with loudspeakers, informing the voting public about their alternative policies. Most focused their attention on the lack of good governance, high rates of corruption and the languid development in the capital city, under the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) administration.
“Choose Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) for better governance,” was one of many logo covered posters pasted on the side of a minibus on Thursday. Blaring its loudspeakers to get the public’s attention, the mini bus slowly weaved its way around the busy Yidnekachew Tessema Stadium, on Ras Mekonnen Street.
“They show up once a month, but it is good to see them tell us to be ready to vote,” said Daniel Alemneh, 34, who owns a translation business around the stadium. “I do not have the time to follow them on TV, so I was not familiar with the strategies of each one.”
It was CUD’s second and also its last round of campaigning, since the 24 nationally registered parties received their individual election symbols and started campaigning on February 9, 2013. A total of 29 parties has registered for this election, but five failed to present their candidates.
CUD presented 89 candidates for the city, out of 300 it fielded at the national level. That is a tiny number compared to the 1,251 for Addis Abeba, out of the 35,193 candidates all over the country.
“We will win in Addis Abeba,” said Ayele Chamiso, President of the CUD. He added that his party had done ample campaigning in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Regional State (SNNPR), giving them confidence in the national results as well.
The EPRDF has also contributed to the excitement of the campaign season in the capital. The incumbent party pitched its largest campaign tent near St. Kirkos Church, in Kirkos District. Candidates for the party addressed several hundred residents of the area, mostly women from the EPRDF’s Women’s League. Most of the people that gathered were wearing t-shirts that read “Elect the EPRDF to continue the development that has been started,” accompanied by a picture of the late Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.
Young Ethiopians, some eligible to vote, others still underage, were also at the gathering. They were seen sharpening cobble stones with hammers to demonstrate the development that is underway in the country. They also carried cardboard houses depicting condominiums.
Even the directors of public schools led their students, clearly too young to vote, to the campaign tent. They were even holding banners.
“I came to promote a peaceful election, though I cannot vote now,” said Birke Gadissa, 16, who came from the EPRDF youth league at Temenja Yazh Elementary School in the district, holding a big banner with some of her school friends.
Some of the 14 candidates EPRDF has nominated for the District, including Azeb Mesfin, widow of Meles Zenawi, were in the tent.
EPRDF’s campaign mobilisation was on a large scale across all 11 districts in the city. The party was witnessed touring the city in multiple locations, reminding the voting public of all the things it had accomplished while in office.
“We have done enough,” said Sekutoure Getachew, head of the EPRDF public and foreign relations.
The Ethiopian Democratic Party (EDP) though, having presented its opposition candidate, have done nothing in the form of campaigning to get the vote.
“We don’t have the funding to nominate enough candidates for the 3.9 ml population in the city, let alone for the 80 ml across the country. We participated with one candidate, in order to avoid our party registration being cancelled by the Electoral Board,” said Mushe Semu, president of the EDP. “The EPRDF has bulked the Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa elections with the national local election, without reference to any definitions or specified binding laws.”
Mushe claims that the two cities were categorised under local elections, because the EPRDF wanted to make sure that the opposition would not get the required funding if the two were categorised as national election areas.
“We campaigned using loans,” said Ayele.
The two federal cities stopped being part of the national elections docket after the disputed 2005 elections. The EPRDF lost all its seats in Addis Abeba, although the victorious opposition refused to take over the administration, leading to the formation of a Caretaker Administration.
Out of the five elections it controls, the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia only allots campaign budgets for political parties during national and regional elections. Most of the opposition parties blamed the lack of funding for not nominating more candidates and mobilising massive campaigns.
“We are considering rearranging the election schedules for the future,” said Yisma Jiru, Public Relations head of National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE).
A total of 31.673 million people, 16.273 million males and 15.399 million females are registered to vote, up from 26.36 million for the last local election, in 2008. Addis Abeba has 1.63 million people that have registered, with 540,130 male and 523,267 female voters.
The board also allotted eight hours of television airtime, 16 hours on radio and 56 columns in public newspapers for the campaigns of the 24 parties. All participating political parties will share 50pc of all the services made available equally; 30pc will be divided according to the number of seats that each party holds within the existing House of People’s Representatives. The remaining 20pc will be allocated according to the party’s number of candidates.
“The time we have been assigned is not enough,” said Mushe. “What should be happening is open and lively debates with the ruling party on alternative policies and strategies; what we have, rather, is eight minutes once a month to read some of our policies and strategies. Then we leave the air.”
Mushe added that he does not believe that these elections are meant for the general Ethiopian public, but for those members of the EPRDF, organised under the youth and women leagues.
“These are the people that will determine the outcome of the election,” he states.
Unlike previous elections, which played host to a large number of local and international observers, the only observer expected to be active this election cycle is the Ethiopian Civil Society Coalition, a local organisation. The Coalition is registered by the NEBE to distribute 320 observers to several polling stations across the country.
With all the ups and downs within active political parties and with good governance and growth in the city, Addis Ababa waits for the next person to take her reins. Who will replace Kuma Demeksa, the current mayor of the city, who took the position from the caretaker administration, after the last 2008 local election?
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