From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Mon May 24 2010 - 07:21:13 EDT
Ethiopia's Meles set for easy re-election
EMMANUEL GOUJON
May 23, 2010
Ethiopians voted in legislative elections Sunday with little doubt that
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi would extend his 19-year-old of sub-Saharan
Africa's second most populous country.
With the country's most charismatic opposition figure in prison and what
rights groups have criticised as shrinking political freedom in recent
years, the 55-year-old strongman seemed assured of being comfortably
re-elected.
Polling stations started opening at 6:00 am (0300 GMT) for the vast Horn of
Africa nation's 32 million registered voters to elect the 547-strong lower
House of Representatives, as well as regional councillors who in turn will
pick the upper chamber of parliament.
The opposition scored its best results in 2005 and alleged afterwards that
Meles' regime stole the election, sparking violence that left 193 protesters
and seven policemen dead.
The ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) has
promised that the fourth multi-party legislative polls would be free and
fair.
But Human Rights Watch has charged that Meles has taken tough measures to
avoid a repeat of the "mistakes" that nearly cost him victory in 2005.
"The Ethiopian government is waging a coordinated and sustained attack on
political opponents, journalists, and rights activists ahead of the May 2010
elections," the watchdog said in the run-up to the polls.
Birtukan Mideksa, the 36-year-old woman who emerged from the 2005 electoral
chaos as Ethiopia's most inspirational opposition figure, is serving a life
sentence in jail.
"In the true communist tradition, we fear that the government is seeking to
weaken her in prison to ensure she no longer poses any political threat,"
Negasso Gidada, vice chairman of Birtukan's party, told AFP.
Challenging Meles and his EPRDF will be the coalition Medrek ("forum" in
Amharic).
"If we win, we intend to form a national unity government for the five
coming years," said Beyene Petros, the current rotating chairman of Medrek.
Meles' regime faces a strong Medrek challenge in the southern Oromiya
region, a rebellion in the Somali ethnic region of Ogaden and even
unprecedented opposition in its own historical fiefdom of Tigray.
But observers argue that the opposition, despite joining forces under the
Medrek umbrella, remains weak and divided and has not recovered from the
repression that followed the 2005 post-electoral unrest.
"The leadership of the Forum rotates every few months, and even so, they
lack the charisma of Birtukan and have not been able to capture the
imagination of the citizens," an Addis Ababa University professor said on
condition of anonymity.
Foreign criticism of the regime's authoritarianism has been muted, notably
because Meles -- whose country borders Eritrea and Somalia -- remains a key
US and Western ally in the fight against Islamic extremism.
"It's great thing if there are several opposition parties, but when it comes
to the long-term stability of the country and the region, Meles is still
your best bet," one Addis-based diplomat said.
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