Fair or flawed, this week's Ethiopian elections were hailed as a landmark achievement in African democracy, writes Gamal Nkrumah Ethiopian democracy is a vulnerable entity, with a distinguished and astounding history. A majority of the country's 26 million registered voters are expected to back the government's bid for a third term in office. In spite of electoral irregularities, the elections, and the estimated 90 per cent voter turnout, was applauded by international observers. While the Ethiopian government this week claimed victory, the opposition, not to be outdone, said they won 23 seats in the capital Addis Ababa, even though the final count had not yet been officially tallied. The ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) announced on Monday that it would form the new government with its parliamentary majority. "We have won the necessary seats to form a federal government. We accept the verdict of the people," Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zennawi said, much to the consternation of the country's myriad opposition parties. He urged the opposition to accept the "people's verdict". Ethiopian government sources said the EPRDF also won at least four of the eight regional assemblies -- South Ethiopia, Oromia, Amhara and Tigray. The EPRDF previously held 481 seats of the 547-seat federal Ethiopian parliament. But as Al-Ahram Weekly went to print it was not clear if the EPRDF actually won a "landslide victory" as the state-controlled media claimed. Opposition parties argue that they won no less than 92 seats. European Union observers promptly criticised the premature announcements of both government and opposition. "The EU elections observation mission thinks that these announcements are not proper and will continue to follow counting and tabulation closely," the head of the EU observer mission team to Ethiopia, Anna Gomez, remarked. Gomez, however, conceded that the overall environment in which this week's elections took place were "characterised by greater political inclusiveness" in comparison with previous elections. These are the third elections to be held in the country since the ouster of the former Ethiopian military strongman Menguistu Haile Mariam in 1991. Ethiopia, Africa's main coffee producer, is one of the continent's poorest nations. But the country's current rulers say they want Ethiopia to turn into a beacon of good governance in Africa. Gomez, nevertheless, observed that, "the overall political environment in which the elections took place contained a number of elements which limited the full suffrage and free expression of the will of the people." The Americans concurred. "Administrative and procedural irregularities such as ballot shortages, slow lines and problems with voter registration lists were observed in various locations, but didn't appear to fit a pattern of systematic fraud," United States State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said. Meanwhile, officials of the Ethiopian National Elections Board could not confirm the results. Two major opposition groups, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) and the United Ethiopian Democratic Forces (UEDF) claimed that together they could easily muster 185 parliamentary seats. The CUD is dominated by ethnic Amhara -- historically the politically dominant national group in Ethiopia. Since the advent of multi-party democracy in the country, however, the Amhara witnessed a pronounced erosion of their political hegemony as they lost out to the hitherto long politically suppressed Tigrinyans, Gurages and the numerically strong but politically divided Oromo. CUD vice-chairman, Berhanu Nega, echoed that the government should not have announced that it won while the vote is still being counted. "This is a clear sign that the ruling party wants to cling to power using all illegal means that will suppress the democratic will of the people," Berhanu, an ethnic Gurage, said. Ethiopian officialdom disagreed. "For the first time in our history we have truly free and fair elections. The old days are over. We have set a precedent," Ethiopia's Ambassador to Egypt Amare Girma told the Weekly. "The elections procedure was flawless and there were big public rallies both in the capital and in provincial cities. People turned out in unprecedented numbers to vote," Girma added. Nonetheless, Ethiopian authorities imposed a month-long ban on demonstrations, a move opposition parties regarded as being aimed at silencing dissent. The opposition's sweeping successes in the capital, however, ushers in a new era in Ethiopian politics. Ethiopia is composed of nine autonomous regions each with its regional legislative assembly. One of the key electoral issues, Girma notes, centred on Article 39 of the constitution, which guarantees the right of nationalities to secede. Other topics that animated political debate were women's rights issues and industrialisation policy. The most vital issue, however, was the land question. The Ethiopian government decreed that land be publicly owned in order to protect the rights of peasants. The main opposition parties, most of them liberal parties to the right of the EPRDF, argue that the lack of private ownership hampers development in rural areas. "The whole question of land rights and public property rights was publicly and hotly debated in the run-up to the elections," Girma said. Although it is never wise to extrapolate a trend from one event, it could be said with some certainty that Ethiopia has come a long way from the days of the Derg; the military junta that ruled the ethnically diverse country of 72 million with an iron fist. The collateral damage to Ethiopia's reputation would be incalculable if the elections are dismissed as flawed. But, whatever the outcome, many observers view the elections as a landmark achievement when set against this historical and social context.
