Medrek may take protests to the streets

By Kirubel Tadesse

The biggest opposition group Medrek is contemplating calling a public demonstration to voice its protest at the last month’s election it said was rigged by the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), Capital has learnt.

In results released by the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE), Medrek, which fielded the second most candidates after the ruling front for the 547 federal parliament seats, won only a single seat in Addis Ababa, Woreda Six.

The seat is the only one won by all opposition parties. One went to an independent candidates and the rest to the EPRDF and its affiliates in emerging regions.
Medrek and All Ethiopian Unity Party (AEUP) the other major opposition party, called for a fresh vote shortly after provisional results were declared, claiming the poll was flawed.

Earlier this week, the NEBE rejected the groups’ call, stating that evidence submitted to it by the parties did not justify a rerun.

“We can simply reject NEBE’s decision and continue or we can go to courts, most probably we will do the latter. We are a constitution-abiding party, so we are likely to go through all the institutions before concluding that these independent institutions don’t want wrongs to be undone and for an election rerun to happen,” Medrek’s parliamentary candidate former president Negasso Gidada (PhD) told Capital.

According to Negasso, vice president of the Unity for Democracy and Justice (UDJ), a leading member of the Medrek coalition, the leadership is contemplating calling a public demonstration. “There are some who are raising the idea of holding a rally, but there hasn’t been a definitive decision so far. I too think that we have to voice our stand already expressed by the party leadership and also to thank the electorate who voted and sacrificed a lot to support us,” he explained.
The ruling party’s supporters already celebrated the EPRDF victory and peaceful 4th national elections in Meskal Square. Blasting the Human Rights Watch report that rejected the poll was also a theme of the rally held the morning after results were announced.
The government says a similar demonstration by any other legal party is also possible.

“There is no one who is going to forbid any legal demonstration of any size in this land. If the ruling party has a right to hold rallies, opposition parties have equal rights. They can go to the streets, we don’t have any problem.

“The only request the government will have is to make it peaceful,” Bereket Simon, Minister at Government Communication Affairs, said.

For the first time in the nation’s modern political history, in May 2005 hundreds of thousands flocked to a peaceful rally in support of an opposition group - the former CUD. However, after the disputed election, street clashes between former CUD supporters and security forces left 200 people dead.

After a four year break, some 250 people, mainly UDJ members, last year marched to the offices of the president and the prime minister to call for the immediate and unconditional release of their chair Birtukan Midekssa.

In an unorthodox demonstration, the marchers had a badge and outsiders were not allowed to join the small crowd.

Source: Capital