Recently there has been a so-called election in Ogadenia, almost three months after the rest of Ethiopia cast its vote. Although we denounced that this was not an election but an exercise by the ruling EPRDF party to rubberstamp its already-chosen choices, some in the world thought otherwise. EU sent observers, for example, to parts of Ogadenia to monitor these elections and the report given by its head Ana Gomes, stated unequivocally that this election “was poorly organized [and] full of irregularities including ballots being sold on the black market.” Any government that truly believes in the ideals of democracy will be gravely concerned about such findings and one would expect it to put the highest state investigative mechanisms in place immediately. However the manner in which EPRDF’s despondent despot responded to these factual report is indicative of someone whose secretly hatched plans have finally been unearthed. Not only did Zenawi use a language, such as labeling the report “garbage”, unfit for a supposed head of a state but he did not raise a single point to corroborate his objections to the findings of this reputable organization.

For those who have not followed the so-called “democratic” exercises in Ethiopia for the last fourteen or so years, these reports of irregularities with the recent elections may appear as a possible one time occurrence. However those on the ground day to day and institutions such as the Norwegian Institute of Human Rights (NIHR) know that these “irregularities” have been taking place ever since Zenawi implemented what we call theoretical democracy in order to get into the good books of the Western world. In a comprehensive research performed by the NIHR and published in a book correctly entitled Ethiopia since the Derg, a decade of democratic pretensions and performance, NIHR researchers reported numerous irregularities in the last election in 2000. Among the most serious of the irregularities found in many parts of Ethiopia was in Zenawi’s home town. Someone who went to the polls to vote there realized for the first time that she was on the ballot as a candidate. It is reasonable to argue that if this can and did take place in the province of the despotic ruler, it sure is an experience easily duplicated in a remote area such as Ogaden where only the EPRDF militia has the absolute authority. If this happened at a time when EPRDF faced no credible opposition and was expected to steamroll to a majority, what says it can not and did not happen at a time when EPRDF could not even win a single seat in the capital Adis Abbaba? It is our inherent belief that having been finally exposed is what startled and irritated Zenawi and might explain why he has felt the need to unleash vitriol and the urge to plead his case with the Ethiopian Herald, a government owned and controlled English daily.

In real democracy one is required to vote freely for whomever one so chooses. One also is required not to tell how one voted as to not influence how others might vote. We believe that this is a lofty democratic ideal. In Ethiopia rules of democracy, whether lofty or not, appear not apply ever since EPRDF announced it was joining the African democratization bandwagon in the early 1990s. If there is truly a “democracy” in Ethiopia, one would expect the country to vote as a whole or not at all. How can one postpone elections in Ogadenia and go ahead with all the other provinces. One can only imagine the hue and cry that would follow if Canada were to announce that elections in Quebec for example will be held a couple of months after all the other provinces have already voted? It is only reasonable to argue that such an election will be labeled as farce and demand for new elections regardless of the results and irregularities of the current one will be demanded by the masses. Why is Ogadenia different? Why does this desperate despot not address the reasons as to why Ogadenia did not vote with the rest of Ethiopia, not for the first time but the third time in the third election? Why does he think his antics might persuade the rest of the world to get on with the results and raise no eyebrows when his militia has already chosen illegally those who would otherwise represent the Ogaden populace in the so-called federal parliament???

Responding to factual reports with threats is nothing new for EPRDF’s despondent despot. Threatening the opposition parties with detention and torture is one thing; it is an all different matter to portend evil to the hand that feeds Ethiopia’s hungry masses. We ask the world community to truly investigate EPRDF’s democratic pretensions. The world should label the recently concluded elections as null and void and investigate whether EPRDF has duped the West, which we believe it did, by presenting a carefully crafted constitution it had no intention of ever implementing in the first place. Diatribe and antics from EPRDF’s despairing despot should be considered as such and the world community should not only stand behind the reports of the EU election monitors in Ogadenia but should impose immediate sanctions if its warnings are not headed.

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Aug 31, 2005
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