General elections were held in
Ethiopia
Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
on 15 May 2005, for seats in the
House of Peoples' Representatives
The House of Peoples' Representatives is the lower house of the Ethiopia, Ethiopian Federal Parliamentary Assembly. Located in the capital Addis Ababa, the House has 547 members. All are elected in theory for five-year term in single-seat constit ...
and four regional government councils. Under pressure from the international community,
Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...
Meles Zenawi
Meles Zenawi Asres (Tigrinya and ; , born Legesse Zenawi Asres; 9 May 1955 – 20 August 2012) was an Ethiopian soldier and politician who served as President of Ethiopia from 1991 to 1995 and then Prime Minister of Ethiopia from 1995 until his ...
promised that this election would be proof that more democracy would come in this multi-ethnic nation; international elections observers from the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
(EU) and the
U.S.
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
-based
Carter Center
The Carter Center is a nongovernmental, not-for-profit organization founded in 1982 by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter. He and his wife Rosalynn Carter partnered with Emory University just after his defeat in the 1980 United States presidenti ...
were present to observe the results. This election succeeded in attracting about 90% of the registered voters to the polls. A government ban on protests was imposed throughout the election period.
Campaigning
EU observers remarked on the "significantly enlarged freedoms for political campaigning in comparison to previous elections". Political parties campaigned actively, and opposition parties appeared to be increasingly active in the rural areas. The observer mission described the atmosphere "during the campaign was calm, culminating in two massive, peaceful rallies in
Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa (; am, አዲስ አበባ, , new flower ; also known as , lit. "natural spring" in Oromo), is the capital and largest city of Ethiopia. It is also served as major administrative center of the Oromia Region. In the 2007 census, t ...
, one by the EPRDF and one by the opposition."
Despite this, opposition parties alleged numerous cases of intimidation, and arrests of its supporters. While the EU observers could not investigate all of the alleged cases, it did confirm those it investigated. International human rights groups likewise cataloged a number of cases of human rights violations. However, the EU observers wrote in their final report, they "recorded no arrests of EPRDF supporters for campaign offences."
Towards the close of the campaigning, the language became more vicious, with each side accusing the other of numerous violations of the campaigning rules. "Campaign rhetoric became insulting," the EU observer's report noted, then continued:
The most extreme example of this came from the Deputy Prime Minister, Addisu Legesse
Addisu Legesse is an Ethiopian politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister of Ethiopia. He was formerly the chairman of the Amhara Democratic Party (ADP), the Amhara region branch of the ruling EPRDF, a position from which he retired in 2010. ...
, who, in a public debate on 15 April, compared the opposition parties with the ''Interhamwe
The Interahamwe ( or ) is a Hutu paramilitary organization active in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda. The Interahamwe was formed around 1990 as the youth wing of the National Republican Movement for Democracy and Development (MR ...
'' militia, which perpetrated the 1994 Rwandan genocide
The Rwandan genocide occurred between 7 April and 15 July 1994 during the Rwandan Civil War. During this period of around 100 days, members of the Tutsi minority ethnic group, as well as some moderate Hutu and Twa, were killed by armed Hutu ...
. The Prime Minister made the same comparison on 5 May in relation to the CUD. The EPRDF made the same associations during its free slots on radio and TV. The opposition coalition UEDF then used the comparison against the government in a TV spot showing footage of the movie "Hotel Rwanda
''Hotel Rwanda'' is a 2004 drama film directed by Terry George. It was adapted from a screenplay co-written by George and Keir Pearson, and stars Don Cheadle and Sophie Okonedo as hotelier Paul Rusesabagina and his wife Tatiana. Based on the Rw ...
". Such rhetoric is unacceptable in a democratic election.
Early results
Early results showed the opposition with a big lead, sweeping all of the contested seats in the capital Addis both in the race for parliamentary as well as local government. By the afternoon of 16 May, the opposition claimed it was halfway towards winning a majority in the national parliament with only about a third of the constituencies reporting complete results. Later that day, trailing badly in the preliminary report covering just under 200 seats released by the National Election Board, the ruling
(EPRDF) announced that it had won more than 317 seats out of 547, while conceding that opposition parties won all 23 seats in the capital city
Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa (; am, አዲስ አበባ, , new flower ; also known as , lit. "natural spring" in Oromo), is the capital and largest city of Ethiopia. It is also served as major administrative center of the Oromia Region. In the 2007 census, t ...
. The two major opposition parties, the
Coalition for Unity and Democracy
The Coalition for Unity and Democracy ( Ge'ez : ቅንጅት ለአንድነት እና ዴሞክራሲ), commonly referred to by its English abbreviation CUD, or occasionally CDU; its Amharic abbreviation, used in Ethiopia, is Qinijit; in Englis ...
(CUD) and the
United Ethiopian Democratic Forces
The United Ethiopian Democratic Forces ( am, የኢትዮጵያ ዴሞክራሲዊ ኃይሎቸ ሕብረት) was a coalition of several political parties in Ethiopia which combined to compete for seats in the Ethiopian general elections held ...
(UEDF) claimed on that same day that they had won 185 of the approximately 200 seats for which the
National Election Board of Ethiopia
The National Election Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) () is an autonomous federal government agency which supervises the national elections of Ethiopia. The NEBE was established by Proclamation number 64/1992, and answers to the House of Peoples' R ...
(NEBE) had released preliminary results. That was a significant improvement over the 12 seats the opposition had in the previous parliament.
By law, the NEBE was required to announce the official results on 8 June. However, the vote tallying process was jeopardized when the opposition claimed that the Addis Ababa vote was rigged and during the evening of 16 May, the Prime Minister declared a state of emergency, outlawed any public gathering, assumed direct command of the security forces, and replaced the capital city police with federal police and special forces drawn from elite army units. The NEBE, simultaneously, ordered the vote tallying process to stop, an order which was not rescinded for nearly a week, yet another action against which the opposition and the independent election monitors strongly objected.
The next official report from the NEBE, released on 27 May, showed that the EPRDF had won 209 seats, and affiliated parties 12 more. The report indicated the opposition parties had won 142 seats. "These results are provisional, and these results could change because we are looking into complaints by some of the parties," said NEBE spokesman
Getahun Amogne Getahun is a male given name of Ethiopian origin that may refer to:
*Birhan Getahun
Birhan Getahun (born 5 September 1991 in Afar) is an Ethiopian runner. He competed in the 3000 m steeplechase event at the 2012 Summer Olympics. He was the stee ...
.
Alleged voting irregularities
Observers from the European Union afterwards "assessed the closing and counting processes negatively in almost half of urban polling stations observed, a very high figure for international observers to record, and even worse in rural polling stations observed." Counting was slow, a remarkably high number of ballots were ruled invalid, and there was a lack of transparency in the results. "Result sheets were only displayed at 29 per cent of rural polling stations observed and 36 per cent of urban polling stations observed at the completion of counting. In 25 per cent of polling stations observed, political party representatives were not provided with a copy of the results."
[EU-EOM, "Final Report", p. 2]
The situation only deteriorated with the following day, according to the observers,
starting with a blanket ban, issued immediately after the end of voting, on freedom of assembly in the capital. Media coverage also worsened. State media published statements by government/EPRDF personnel claiming victory in the elections, despite the fact that counting was still underway, but refused to publish opposition statements. Incidents involving students started on the night of 5 June and extended on 6 and 7 June with hundreds being arrested. During a demonstration in Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa (; am, አዲስ አበባ, , new flower ; also known as , lit. "natural spring" in Oromo), is the capital and largest city of Ethiopia. It is also served as major administrative center of the Oromia Region. In the 2007 census, t ...
on 8 June, security forces killed at least 36 citizens and in the aftermath arrested thousands of persons, mostly linked to the opposition, who were accused of spreading "political unrest".
The CUD lodged complaints in 139 constituencies, the UEDF lodged 89 complaints, while the EPRDF has raised concerns over irregularities in more than 50 seats. Including the complaints lodged by small parties, complaints concerning the results in 299 parliamentary seats were lodged. According to an official of the NEBE, political parties had until June 3 to provide evidence of fraud, or their complaints would be dismissed. However investigations led to elections being re-run at a minimum of 16 voting stations, and affecting elections for at least six seats. Writing in November of that year, scholar Christopher Clapham noted that "the official results of the elections are both complex in themselves, and deeply affected by fraud". On one hand, he pointed out that the EPRDF lost heavily in those cities of Ethiopia which were bellwethers of public opinion; on the other,
: some of the constituencies declared for the EPRDF defy any plausible assessment of public opinion in the areas concerned: that it should have won about half of the seats both in
Sidama
The Sidama ( am, ሲዳማ) are an ethnic group traditionally inhabiting the Sidama Region, formerly part of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region of Ethiopia. On 23 November 2019, the Sidama Zone became the 10th regional sta ...
and in
western Welega, for instance, is entirely incredible. In Sidama, as a result of the May 2002 massacre, and in western Welega, as the heartland of
OLF support, hostility to the regime runs very deep, and the declared results can only be the result either of heavy-handed government pressure before and during the vote, or else of fraud after it.
Provisional results were scheduled to be released on May 23, but the need to investigate claims of voting irregularities and disruptions in two southern
regions
In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...
—
and
Oromia
Oromia (Amharic: ) ( om, Oromiyaa) is a regional state in Ethiopia and the homeland of the Oromo people. The capital of Oromia is Addis Ababa.
It is bordered by the Somali Region to the east; the Amhara Region, the Afar Region and the Benish ...
— delayed the release of these results until June 8, the date originally scheduled for releasing the official results. When the ruling party was unofficially reported the winner of the election, demonstrations protesting alleged election fraud broke out, and continued into June. Hundreds of students were arrested in at least nine cities, including
Gondar
Gondar, also spelled Gonder (Amharic: ጎንደር, ''Gonder'' or ''Gondär''; formerly , ''Gʷandar'' or ''Gʷender''), is a city and woreda in Ethiopia. Located in the North Gondar Zone of the Amhara Region, Gondar is north of Lake Tana on t ...
, Bure,
Bahir Dar
Bahir Dar ( amh, ባሕር ዳር, 3=sea shore) is the capital city of Amhara Region, Ethiopia. Bahir Dar is one of the leading tourist destinations in Ethiopia, with a variety of attractions in the nearby Lake Tana and Blue Nile river. The ci ...
,
Debre Marqos
Debre Markos ( am, ደብረ ማርቆስ, Däbrä Marḳos lit: ''Mount of St. Mark'') is a city, separate woreda, and administrative seat of the East Gojjam Zone in Amhara Region, Ethiopia.
Etymology
Originally named Manqwarar (lit: Cold Place ...
,
Dessie
Dessiè City which is politically oppressed by the past Ethiopian government systems due to the fact that most of the population follow Islamic religion.
Dessie ( am, ደሴ, Däse; also spelled Dese or Dessye) is a town in north-central Ethiopia ...
and
Awassa
Hawassa ( am, አዋሳ; ʾäwasa, also spelled Awassa or Awasa) known historically as Adare is a city in Ethiopia, on the shores of Lake Awasa, Lake Awassa in the Great Rift Valley, Ethiopia, Great Rift Valley. It is south of Addis Ababa via ...
for demonstrating despite a month-old ban on protests imposed on the government. At the same time, security forces arrested dozens of locally prominent CUD members in Gondar, Dessie,
Wondo Genet
Wondo Genet (also transliterated Wendo Genet) is a resort town in Ethiopia located southeast of Shashemene in the Sidama Region with an elevation of 1723 meters.
Wondo Genet is connected to Shashamene by way of Wendo Wosha, by newly improved ...
,
Kombolcha
Kombolcha () is a town and district in north-central Ethiopia. Located in the Debub Wollo Zone of the Amhara Region, it has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation between 1842 and 1915 meters above sea level. Some guide books describe Ko ...
and
Jinka
Jinka is a market town in southern Ethiopia. Located in the hills north of the Tama Plains, this town is the capital of the Debub Omo Zone of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Region. Currently Jinka is the center of Jinka town adm ...
; unconfirmed reports of arrests following a similar pattern came from several other towns. On June 8, police shot 42 people gathering at the Piazza and Merkato markets of Addis Ababa. The government afterwards stated that an appropriate level of force was used and accused the CUD of fomenting dissent; the CUD denied these accusations, and claimed that the government was attempting to distract attention from election fraud. This led to the leaders of the CUD, including head
Hailu Shawul
Hailu Shawul (also spelled Shawel or Shawil; gez, ሃይሉ ሻዉል; 1936 – 6 October 2016) was an Ethiopian politician and civil engineer who was the leader of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) during the 2005 Ethiopian general ...
, being put under house arrest while hundreds of security forces patrolled the streets of the capital.
Official results
On July 8, the NEBE released the first official results for 307 of the 547 national parliamentary seats. Of the 307 seats, the EPRDF had won 139, while CUD and UEDF won 93 and 42, respectively. Smaller parties and independent candidates won the remaining 33 seats. However,
Berhanu Nega
Berhanu Nega ( am, ብርሃኑ ነጋ; born 6 December 1958) is an Ethiopian politician who is serving as the current Ministry of Education (Ethiopia), Minister of Education of Ethiopia. He previously was the mayor elect of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia ...
, vice-chairman of the CUD, had criticized the process on July 20, claiming that "The investigation process was a complete failure. Our representatives and witnesses have been harassed, threatened, barred and killed upon their return from the hearings."
Meanwhile, the NEBE investigated voting fraud and other irregularities, while also arranging new polls to resolve some disputes. On August 9, official results were released, acknowledging that the ruling EPRDF had won 296 of the total 524 seats — about 56% — enabling it to form a government, while its allied parties won 22 seats. The UEDF won 52 seats. Berhanu said his party, which had officially won 109 seats, was debating whether they would challenge the results in court. Repeat elections were scheduled for August 21 in 31 areas where either irregularities were reported or results were challenged.
Opposition parties had decided to boycott the related August 21 elections in the
Somali Region
The Somali Region ( so, Deegaanka Soomaalida, am, ሱማሌ ክልል, Sumalē Kilil, ar, المنطقة الصومالية), also known as Soomaali Galbeed (''Western Somalia'') and officially the Somali Regional State, is a regional state ...
. The CUD withdrew 10 of the 17 candidates it was fielding in Somali region, while the
Western Somali Democratic Party
Western Somali Democratic Party (WSDP; also known as ''Somali Galbed'') is a political party in Ethiopia. It emerged from the Western Somali Liberation Front in 1975. The former President of the Somali Region, Hassan Jire Kalinle, has been the part ...
, the
Somali Democratic Alliance Forces
Somali may refer to:
Horn of Africa
* Somalis, an inhabitant or ethnicity associated with Greater Somali Region
** Proto-Somali, the ancestors of modern Somalis
** Somali culture
** Somali cuisine
** Somali language, a Cushitic language
** Somali, ...
and
Del Wabe People's Democratic Movement
Del, or nabla, is an operator used in mathematics (particularly in vector calculus) as a vector differential operator, usually represented by the nabla symbol ∇. When applied to a function defined on a one-dimensional domain, it denotes t ...
who had planned to field 43 candidates for the
Federal Parliamentary Assembly
The Federal Parliamentary Assembly ( am, የፌዴራል ፓርላማ ምክር ቤት, Ye-Fēdēralawī Parilama Mikir Bēt) is Ethiopia's federal legislature. It consists of two chambers:
*The House of Federation (upper chamber)
*The House ...
and 273 candidates for the regional parliament in the regional capital of
Jijiga
Jijiga (, am, ጅጅጋ, ''Jijiga'') is the capital city of Somali Region, Ethiopia. It became the capital of the Somali Region in 1995 after it was moved from Gode. Located in the Fafan Zone with 70 km (37 mi) west of the border ...
, also announced that they would boycott this election.
On September 5, the NEBE released its final results, in which the EPRDF retained its control of the government with 327 seats; within the EPRDF, the
Oromo People's Democratic Organization
The Oromo Democratic Party ( om, Paartii Demokraatawaa Oromoo, ODP) was a political party in Ethiopia, and part of the alliance with the Amhara National Democratic Movement, the South Ethiopian Peoples' Democratic Front and the Tigrayan People ...
won 110 seats, the
Southern Ethiopian People's Democratic Movement
The Southern Ethiopian People's Democratic Movement (SEPDM) was a political party in Ethiopia.
At the last legislative elections, 15 May 2005, the party was part of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front, that won 327 out of 527 s ...
92 seats, the
Amhara National Democratic Movement
The Amhara Democratic Party (ADP) ( am, አማራ ዴሞክራሲያዊ ፓርቲ), originally known as Amhara National Democratic Movement (ANDM), was a political party in Ethiopia. The party was one of four members of the Ethiopian People's R ...
87 seats and the Tigray People's Liberation Front 38 seats. Opposition parties won 174 seats.
Protest
Protests of the results, led by Coalition for Democracy and Unity, began on November 1, 2005, and have prompted more than 60,000 arrests. Live gunfire from government forces has been directed at protesters and bystanders, killing at least 42. A number of policemen were also killed suggesting that violence was not all on the side of the state.
Massacre claims and public inquiry
On October 18, 2006, the draft report of a 10-member public inquiry into election-related unrests was released to
Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...
(AP). It concludes that a total of 199 people (193 civilians and six policemen) were killed and 763 were injured, a significantly higher figure than the Ethiopian government's claim that 61 civilians and seven policemen were killed. The vice chairman of the inquiry, judge Wolde-Michael Meshesha, who fled Ethiopia a month prior after he had received anonymous death threats, told AP that "this was a massacre ... these demonstrators were unarmed yet the majority died from shots to the head." He added that the government attempted to pressure and intimidate members of the inquiry after learning about its controversial finding. The Ethiopian government did not immediately comment on the leaked report, but the next day, it told
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
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that its contents were "hearsay." The
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
's chief observer during the elections,
Ana Maria Gomes
Ana Maria Rosa Martins Gomes (born 9 February 1954), better known as Ana Gomes, is a Portuguese former diplomat and politician of the Socialist Party (PS).
She earned wide recognition for her role in negotiating independence for East Timor, a ...
, stated that the draft report "only confirms what we have said in our report on the elections," and "that indeed there were massive human rights violations."
"Ethiopia row over 'massacre' leak"
''BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...
'', October 19, 2006
Notes
External links
* Christopher Clapham
"Comments on the Ethiopian Crisis"
(MediaEthiopia.com)
Poll-related
National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE)
Angus Reid Consultants - Election Tracker
International Herald Tribune coverage
Ethiopians shot dead in protests
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...
, 8 June 2005
Ethiopia Political Unrest Leaves 20 Dead
''The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'', 8 June 2005
Crackdown on media amid election controversy
IFEX
First Ethiopia poll results drawn
BBC News
BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...
, 8 July 2005
Opposition rejects final election results
IRIN
Opposition parties to boycott Somali region polls
IRIN
Ruling party named winner in final result of disputed poll
IRIN, 5 September 2005
Violence-related
In pictures: Ethiopia clashes
(BBC)
Ethiopian protesters 'massacred'
(BBC)
{{Ethiopian Elections
Ethiopia
Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
General election
A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...
General elections in Ethiopia
Political repression in Ethiopia
Ethiopian general election
Election and referendum articles with incomplete results