Ethiopia: Blue Party Raises Serious Complaints, Rejects Election Results

By Dawit Endeshaw

Blue Party, like Medrek, has denounced the preliminary results but has not announced its next steps

Blue Party has become the second party after Medrek to denounce the preliminary results of the election released by the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) this week.

Despite both parties decrying the election process and results, there are 105 seats yet to be occupied.

The Electoral Board confirmed this week that the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) and its allies had won 442 seats of the total 547 seats available, ensuring the continuation of the incumbent.

The party declared its decision to completely reject the results at a press briefing held at its headquarters in Kazanchis, and attended by local and international journalists. The briefing was given by Yilikal Getenet and Sileshi Feyissa, president and vice president of the party, respectively, and Yonathan Tesfaye, public relations head of the party.

"We will not take our claims to court or any other institution because we do not think there is an independent body," said Yonathan.

Blue Party, which is one of the youngest political parties, has received most of the votes following the incumbent party, which won in all 23 constituencies in Addis Abeba. Blue had contested in only 17 of the constituencies and managed to attract 53,045 votes in constituencies two, three, four, 10 and 17 to earn second place, whereas EPRDF bagged 147,760 votes within the same constituencies.

The fifth general election is incomparable even with previous elections in terms of being unfair and untrustworthy, says the statement read by Sileshi.

The party mentioned irregularities throughout the process of voting and further stated that it could not have its observers at many polling stations because they were restrained by security and local militias and could not to leave their houses. Specifically, the party mentioned that in constituencies of Bale and Arsi Bekoje the party was unable to have its observers at the polling station, not to mention in stations across Addis Abeba. The statement also criticised the role of African Union (AU) observers as a failed mission. The AU Electoral Mission's 15 page report concluded that the parliamentary election was calm, peaceful, and credible as they provided an opportunity for the Ethiopian people to express their choices at the polls.

It is obvious that the results of the remaining votes will be taken by the ruling party and Blue Party does not expect to get any, stated Yonathan.

Aside from Medrek and Blue party, the Ethiopian Democratic Party (EDP) was also vocal in its criticism. Chane Kebede (PhD), president of EDP told Fortune that he had faced many irregularities in his constituency, Tis Abbay Zenlem, to the extent that people were assigned and seated inside the voting booth, ordering voters to elect this and that. He also criticised the reports of civic associations and the AU, saying their report had a gap in terms of assessing and reflecting the real features of the voting day.

The party will hold an executive meeting on Sunday, May 31, 2015 and will present its evaluation of the overall election process. It is expected that EDP will disclose its stand on the election, later on, though it is still unclear whether the party will adopt the same position as Blue and Medrek.

The final results of the election are to be announced on June 22, 2015.

Source: allafrica