EPRDF- NEB DRAMA OF DECEPTION IN THE TRIPARTITE INVESTIGATION PANELS

EPRDF-NEB drama of deception in the tripartite investigation panels

The following Panel-related information comes from a representative of CUD in one of the north-bound Tripartite Investigation Panels each of which has consisted of CUD, UEDF and EPRDF, each with one representative, with international observers serving as witnesses to the EPRDF-NEB (NEB = National Election Board) drama of fraud and deception; NEB was always the “neutral” chair of the Panel of three. The Panel was assigned this July to investigate alleged election malpractices in 4 weredas of South Wollo, namely Bati, Albico, Sayint No. 2 Densa wereda, and Debresina No.2 at Wegdi Polling Station. Let us look at his experiences in the Panel at each of the four weredas.

The Panel at Bati wereda

He starts by stating that Bati wereda had 49 polling stations and CUD had won in Bati on May 15, 2005 by obtaining 5000 more votes than EPRDF, but EPRDF had objected to the results in 14 of the polling stations where EPRDF alleged that “ The Election Officers appointed by the National Election Board at those 14 polling Stations had campaigned for CUD, and that in two of them, members of CUD had campaigned on election day.”

The CUD representative has also noted that “The allegation relating to the Election Officers was not really related to CUD, and the gravity of the allegations was no where as serious as those copiously committed against CUD. Nevertheless,” he reports, “ the investigation process went as follows: first, two witnesses of EPRDF came in one at a time, and they clearly did not know what to tell the Panel. During cross questioning, what one of the witnesses told us did not tally with that of the other. For example, when talking about the time of an alleged event, one testified that the event of interest happened in the morning whereas the other said it took place in the afternoon.”

He continues: “Defense witnesses were presented by CUD. However, whereas EPRDF was given two solid days to line up its witnesses, CUD was give only half a day. ”

He then adds: “CUD presented an official document signed at the end of election day on May 15, 2005 by EPRDF’s official election agent and the Elections Officers, and it clearly stated that the election was carried out peacefully. We also repeatedly requested the Panel to allow CUD to call the Election Officers to the Panel to testify regarding their alleged campaigning on behalf of CUD, but the request was vehemently denied. ”

He goes on : “Finally, the NEB representative, who chairs the Panel, and the EPRDF representative looked at each other and then calmly ruled that election in Bati was not free and fair and that a repeat election was necessary. The vote was two to one, EPRDF and NEB voting for re-election on one side and CUD voting against re-election.”

The CUD representative further reported: “ I was so mad at the foul play that I called up our Leaders at CUD’s Head Office in Addis Ababa to request if I might withdraw from that deceptive Panel. The instructions from CUD’s leadership in Addis Ababa was that I should hung on patiently and continue with the Panel.”

The CUD representative at the Panel further stated: “ Bati is an inaccessible wereda so that CUD had no resources to appoint even party observers in its several polling stations. Indeed, CUD did not even have the financial capacity to address its supporters, let alone have a capacity to convince NEB-appointed Election Officers to do political campaigning for it. All that CUD could do before May 2005 was to select credible local candidates to compete in the wereda elections and no more. ”

He also added: “CUD is sure to win again in a repeat election. However, strong supporters of CUD are being thrown into jail; CUD members and supporters are being constantly harassed and kidnapped, the whereabouts of those kidnapped is unknown; credits for fertilizers are no more given to even suspected supporters of CUD; local EPRDF officials who are in charge of fertilizer distribution with credit facilities are forcing CUD supporters to say ‘ We regret the support we have given to CUD on election day; we have made a grave mistake by doing that’; EPRDF is taking savage revenge on our poor farmers for exercising their democratic rights. However, I think CUD will still win if international observers and the free press are present to observe the re-election ”.

The CUD representative further explained: “The investigation process was also further disabled by the NEB representative on the Panel. During the recording of Minutes, the views of the EPRDF representative have been presented in great detail, but CUD’s views are documented in a manner that is vague and muddled. In addition, when they tape-record our statements, they cut us short and force us to stop, thereby displaying their partisanship in still a different way. “

Further, he adds: “ They take away our vehicle; when we travel long distances between polling stations, they force us to sit with the EPRDF representative in order to deny CUD members any opportunity for discussion of CUD preparations for the investigation; they have repeatedly tried to push us out of the Panel; they always make sure that international observers of the European Union will not have any opportunity to discuss with us, and they always go with them, and they even lodge in the same hotels; they always pose as the decision makers for Ethiopia, and regard us not as legal representatives of a party competing for political power, but as beggars of votes.”

The Panel at Albico wereda

CUD’s representative starts by saying: “Albico is another wereda where CUD had won on May 15, 2005. EPRDF had alleged that the locks of Ballot Boxes in three polling stations had been broken. It was true that the locks had been broken, and that was also confirmed by EPRDF’s own witnesses in the morning who testified that the breakage was done by an EPRDF agent called Getachew. However, that same afternoon, the EPRDF representative came up with five other witnesses, contrary to the agreed rules of procedure, but we had been told by the Panel earlier that we would not be allowed to present more than five witnesses at the same polling station. Hence, we objected when NEB and EPRDF decided to accept more than five witnesses. Their response was that ‘if you object, then we will decide any way with our majority vote since we are two against one’. I was so frustrated by the double standard of NEB and EPRDF members of the Panel, I decided to step out of the room before the expected vote. Immediately, they reported to Addis Ababa that CUD had abandoned the Tripartite Investigation Panel. While I was momentarily out, they had, as expected, decided that there would be a repeat of the election in Albico. ”

He adds: “Ordinarily, such investigations take from one to two days, but the Albico investigation took only half a day. The entire experience was so nauseating and unjust that I was highly frustrated at the time. However, at the end of the investigation drama, we went back to Dessie, and there I met another CUD representative in another Panel assigned to North Wollo, and when I learnt that his experience was exactly identical to mine, I felt a little better and decided to marshal still more patience. ”

Sayint No. 2 Densa Wereda

CUD’s representative begins by saying: “CUD was the one which had lodged objections to the elections in this wereda. However, we were worried at the prospect of a re-run of the deceptive drama that we had seen in the previous two weredas. Guided by Election Officers of the National Election Board, we proceeded to what we thought was Densa wereda which we had never been to before. However, it turned out that our NEB guides had taken us not to Densa wereda but to Ajibar town. Since we had come from Addis Ababa, 189 kilometers away, we were eager to go and see what would happen this time in Densa wereda. We spent the night at Ajibar, and next day, as we started to set up the Panel’s investigation office at Ajibar town, we were told we were in Ajibar and not in Densa wereda, which was reported to be 80 kilometers away. The reason for the dramatic change of venue was that the road to Densa wereda was reported to be bad. The NEB-EPRDF pair of the Panel then told us that since we had lodged the protest here, we should get our witnesses here in Ajibar that same afternoon. We tried to persuade the NEB-EPRDF pair of the Panel to proceed to Densa wereda with us since our witnesses were waiting for us there, but they refused. So we decided to go alone to bring our witnesses from Densa.”.

The CUD representative continues: “ We prepared to set out alone, and when we started our journey, they came up with the threat of ‘ shiftas will kill you on the way’. Hence, we requested for police to accompany us, and we started the difficult journey in the company of a policeman, the representative of European Observer Mission and the CUD representative of Sayint wereda. The vehicles were good so that we progressed quite fast. All of a sudden, near Key Washa ( also known as Denkoro Chaka), our EPRDF guides decided that they would not go any further, and they threatened the driver that if he drove any further, he would be responsible for whatever might happen. Hence, we had no other option but to look for local CUD members and ask them to go and bring our witnesses, and they came back at 3.00 p.m. next day, totally exhausted, to tell us that the witnesses had dispersed to their respective villages when the Panel failed to show up yesterday. So we returned to Ajibar and the Panel’s NEB-EPRDF pair then decided that since CUD could not present witnesses, the NEB-EPRDF majority decision was that there would be no re-election in the wereda.”

Debre Sina Wegdi Polling Station

CUD’s Panel representative states: “Here, CUD had challenged the election results which reportedly favored EPRDF. However, true to the nature of the partisan Panel, and in spite of solid evidence to defend our position, it was similarly decided that there would be no repeat of the election.”

Addis Zena, the Amharic Weekly, has also presented a similarly sad experience of a CUD Panel representative in Southern Ethiopia where the deception drama is also the same as in the North. Indeed, it is a nation-wide deception strategy to steal the votes of all rural Ethiopia, and it is engineered, no doubt, by EPRDF from Addis Ababa using the EPRDF-appointed-controlled-managed National Election Board as its powerful tool.

The representative of NEB in each Panel has never tired to claim that he is from a neutral NEB and not a supporter or recruit of EPRDF. If that were indeed true, he should have been a neutral chair at all local investigations, leaving all decisions to NEB in Addis Ababa instead of always delivering a partisan vote for EPRDF even when the evidence was clearly in favor of CUD. Has there ever been any member of an Election Commission in Europe or America which has ever voted down the opposition in favor of the Ruling Party at any forum of investigation, thereby violating well-known international election standards for election management bodies ?

Fourteen long years of gross violation of fundamental human rights, poor governance, famine (14.3 million in 2003) and starvation, a never-ceasing inter-ethnic conflict in all corners of the country, unremitting poverty, total national mismanagement and corruption are inexcusable for any ruling party; the per capita income of $100 some 40 years ago has gone down to $90.00 today. Why should Ethiopians vote for EPRDF when all that it has done in 14 years is to divide us, destroy our basic institutions and fabricate a bloody, costly and senseless war in 1998, create inter-ethnic conflicts all over the country, dismember and disgrace Ethiopia, impoverish us and still pile billions of Dollars of international debt without any positive effect ?

The new operational regulations issued by the old EPRDF-dominated Parliament this month, reportedly on the orders of the Prime Minister, tie up the in-coming opposition’s hand and feet so that there appears to be very little purpose for the opposition to be in the new parliament when and if it opens in October 2005; Arkebe’s illegal tax forgiveness just before May 15, 2005 is nothing but childish since it has been done to buy votes from the business community which has responded by emphatically rejecting EPRDF’s new overture when it gave its votes to CUD on May 15, 2005; the senseless and illegal tax reductions after the elections of May 15, 2005 by Arkebe, the Transitional Mayor of Addis Ababa, who is also member of the Executive Committees of the Ruling Party and TPLF, is another evidence of the criminal capacity of EPRDF to violate the law of the Land; the transfer of several revenue sources of Addis Ababa by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to the Federal Government is still another evidence that the Prime Minister is either attempting to cover up previous corrupt practices by moving units like the Division of Documentation from Addis Ababa, or he is continuing, as usual, to be blindly vindictive against the people of Addis Ababa for uprooting EPRDF from the Nation’s Capital on May 15, 2005; the transfer of Addis Ababa Police to Federal Police soon after May 15, 2005 is still one more indicator of a diabolical regime which has no respect for democratic practice or rule of law. Such is the nature of the “progressive Prime Minister ” who is now doing his level best to block CUD’s smooth take-over of Addis Ababa and has also prepared the ground rules to make the entire political opposition voiceless in the up-coming Parliament next October.

Indeed, Ethiopians do not see any possibility of a good government headed by a fraudulent, corrupt and authoritarian EPRDF which has totally failed to listen to, and work with, the Ethiopian people for 14 long years. A Nation, even as cultured as Ethiopia, when desperate, may, out of sheer necessity, resort to highly unpredictable and uncharacteristic alternatives. Indeed, I see a fertile breeding ground for terrorism in Ethiopia unless the Ethiopian people and the international donor community stop Meles Zenawi now instead of providing more funding to further abuse rule of law.

Ethiopians desperately want a transparent and accountable Government which genuinely accepts rule of law and Constitutionalism, and accepts, both in principle and practice, that political power emanates from the free will of the people in a free and fair election. EPRDF is authoritarian, and it clearly does not believe in free and fair elections, as repeatedly demonstrated in 1995, 2000 and on May 15, 2005.

Ethiopians have no other desire at this point but to make sure that their votes of May 15, 2005 count equally throughout the country. No amount of generous international or bilateral loans, grants or credits can compare with a solid support for our only cherished goal of achieving free and fair elections at this time. All Ethiopia’s true friends need to support the Ethiopian people today to ensure that no votes are stolen by any party.

The USA and the European Union have ample evidence at this time to see that the only fraudulent party in the May 15, 2005 national and regional elections is only EPRDF; no opposition party has the capacity for fraud in an environment where local and Federal police, the National Election Board, local Government officials, all public mass media, the regional and Federal courts and the majority of local election observers are under the firm control of the Ruling Party. International pressure needs to be strongly focused on EPRDF if the Horn of Africa is to be saved from the impending tragedy of anarchy. Stealing the votes of 60 million in rural Ethiopia cannot be brushed aside any more.

Jefferson’s and Lincoln’s America cannot step back from her rich democratic tradition and international obligations to condone fraudulent elections and side with an authoritarian and murderous regime which has only recently killed over 36 unarmed citizens in a peaceful demonstration under Ms. Aurelia Brasil’s own eyes.

At this critical juncture, the Ethiopian Diaspora has to further intensify their international lobby to avert disaster in Ethiopia in the coming weeks and years. Let us stop the EPRDF-NEB joint enterprise of fraud and deception today. Together, we can stop these criminals !