MEAD’s Next Move Not So Clear

By Gubae Gundarta

Apart from being unable to express its stance on winning one seat in Benishangul Regional State parliament, All Ethiopian Unity Party(MEAD) has declared on several accounts that irrespective of who wins or loses in the election, it is struggling, first and foremost, to see democracy thriving in Ethiopia.

On 21 June 2010, a press conference was held in the party’s premises whereby it announced that it hadn’t welcome the decisions of both the Ethiopian Electoral Board and the Supreme Court for they didn’t take into account the evidences they handed in to prop up their claims against wrongdoings perpetrated during the election season.

Dr. Tadiwos, party official, said, “The letter written to us by the party’s secretary is not in line with the Foundational Proclamation of the Electoral Board 532/1999. We have submitted our evidences, 232 pages long, along with our appeal but the board said all along that we hadn’t provided enough substantiation; the Supreme Court followed suit. This is not right at all.”

Tadiwos further noted that the electoral board has lately proclaimed that All Ethiopian Unity Party (AEUP) won a seat in Benishangul Regional State Parliament. However, Tadiwos said this was not comprehensible because all the candidates of the party were jailed from the get-go. “How can you win an election without campaigning?” he wondered.

While the party was looking forward for the personal details of the said victor in Benishangul Regional State, the officials were indifferent to say whether they were happy with this particular result or not.

Minjar and Shenkora in the Amhara Region, Zeloso Sore in the Southern Nations and Nationalities’ Region, Dasenech in South Omo, and two precincts in Alemgena, Oromia Region, were among the boroughs claimed to have had irregularities during the election.

NewsDire Staff Writer