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27 January, 2008
Opposition parties have continued to voice bitter complaints as the deadline for voter registration for the upcoming local and by-elections draws to a close today.
Bulcha Demeksa, Chairman of the Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement (OFDM), which is one of the opposition parties with eleven seats in Parliament, told The Reporter that his party was facing insurmountable problems in the run up to the upcoming elections.
The most serious problem, according to Bulcha, is the refusal of National Electoral Board (NEB) officials to register OFDM's candidates for the elections.
"Whenever we field two to tree candidates in a single constituency to run for membership of the local council, we don't face problems of registration. But if we try to field many candidates, say fifteen to twenty in a constituency, the electoral board officials come up with several reasons in order to bar our candidates from participating in the elections," Bulcha said.
He added that in each woreda (local district) the number of seats for the local council vary between sixty and one hundred twenty according to the size of the woreda, and that the party needs to field as many candidates as possible to win seats in the district council.
"But each time we field a large number of candidates, it is taken as a threat and results in our candidates being rejected," Bulcha complained.
Bulcha also said that OFDM's candidates have been disallowed from participating in the elections on the ground that they are underage.
Ethiopia's electoral law says that any contestant running for a public office must reach the age of twenty one.
"Even though our candidates were of age, they were simply declared to be underage, and then disqualified," Bulcha complained.
"How come the government does this? I don't simply get it," he said bitterly.
Last week, the OFDM chairman said that the party would decide this week if it were going to participate in or withdraw from the elections.
The deadline for that decision passed yesterday as the party leadership decided to postpone the decision for next week.
According to Bulcha, latest developments such as the release from detainment of some of their members and their eventual registration in some districts was a positive step though not enough to compell them to refrain from boycotting the election.
Failure on the government's part to fund the campaign of candidates was also a sore point to OFDM. "Even though the electoral law entitles us to get public funding, this has not materialized," Bulcha added.
Lack of funds has also become a problem for Ayele Chamiso, who just two weeks ago was recognized by the electoral board as the legitimate leader of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) party.
Up until two weeks ago CUD was led by Temesgen Zewdie. Temesgen, who is also an MP and now finds himself without a party, leads a group of forty parliamentarians who have refused to recognize Ayele Chamiso as CUD leader.
"First the board took away our election symbol and gave it to another party. Now it has taken away the party from us and gave it to Ayele. I don't know how we can field candidates without a legally recognized party. The board's decision is illegal," Temesgen complained.
For Ayele, his main problem is of a financial nature as well as shortage of time as the electoral board has rejected his request for an extension of the deadline for voter registration.
"I don't think we will win many seats as there is short time available to make election preparation", he said.
By Bruck Shewareged - Ethiopian Reporter