Wrapped in white prayer shawls as priests sang hymns over loudspeakers, Ethiopian voters yesterday were choosing between the ruling coalition that ended a brutal dictatorship in 1991 and new opposition parties who promise greater liberalization.
The campaign under a government that has sometimes shown authoritarian tendencies had won qualified international approval, and foreign election observers reported no serious problems as voting progressed yesterday.
Foreign election observers were monitoring the elections for the first time in Ethiopia's history.
PHOTO: AP
EU observers inspecting four polling stations found 454 ballots with an unclear irregular mark in central Addis Ababa and similar ballots outside the capital. None of the ballots were pre-marked for the ruling party, as earlier reported. Opposition politicians had charged that thousands of pre-marked ballots had been circulated.
The National Election Board said the mark was a printing error and Ethiopians finding such ballots need not worry that their votes would not be counted.
Late on Saturday, opposition leaders also accused the police of rounding up hundreds of opposition candidates and poll observers in order to rig the elections in the rural areas. Government officials denied the opposition allegations.
Voters had begun lining up before dawn on a cool, misty morning for the third election in the country's 3,000-year history. The turnout appeared extremely high, in marked contrast to the 2000 election. Polls close at 6pm local time, but anyone in line at closing time will be allowed to vote.
Derje Woubeshet, an unemployed 29-year-old, said he was voting for the opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy because he felt the ruling party had failed to create jobs.
"They brought me disaster, all the people are fed up," he said outside a primary school in Addis Ababa. "They have been supported for the last 15 years, now we need a new government."
Wahib Toure, a cotton producer, said complaints do not make a political agenda and that he would vote for the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front.
"The opposition talked about grievances, but that is not enough to be elected, they are not organized," Wahib, 60, said.
Beyene Petros, vice chairman of the United Ethiopian Democratic Forces, said he had seen reports of vote rigging that "are only the tip of the iceberg."
Petros produced a marked ballot with an electoral seal which was already marked for Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's ruling coalition. He said thousands of such ballots began circulating on Saturday.
Information Minister Bereket Simon said that he called police stations across the country to investigate the opposition claims. "This is absolutely false," Bereket said.
Former US president Jimmy Carter said that the 24 teams of observers from the Carter Center had reported no problems with the balloting early yesterday, but they were looking into the opposition's allegations. More than 500 foreign observers were monitoring the polls.
Ethiopia was an absolute monarchy under Emperor Haile Selassie until the mid-1970s, when a brutal Marxist junta overthrew him.
Civil wars wracked the ethnically fractured country in the 1980s, and famine took as many as 1 million lives. Meles' rebel group overthrew the junta in 1991. Meles became president, then prime minister in 1995, and is now seeking a third term.
LANDMARK CASE: ‘Every night we were dragged to US soldiers and sexually abused. Every week we were forced to undergo venereal disease tests,’ a victim said More than 100 South Korean women who were forced to work as prostitutes for US soldiers stationed in the country have filed a landmark lawsuit accusing Washington of abuse, their lawyers said yesterday. Historians and activists say tens of thousands of South Korean women worked for state-sanctioned brothels from the 1950s to 1980s, serving US troops stationed in country to protect the South from North Korea. In 2022, South Korea’s top court ruled that the government had illegally “established, managed and operated” such brothels for the US military, ordering it to pay about 120 plaintiffs compensation. Last week, 117 victims
China on Monday announced its first ever sanctions against an individual Japanese lawmaker, targeting China-born Hei Seki for “spreading fallacies” on issues such as Taiwan, Hong Kong and disputed islands, prompting a protest from Tokyo. Beijing has an ongoing spat with Tokyo over islands in the East China Sea claimed by both countries, and considers foreign criticism on sensitive political topics to be acts of interference. Seki, a naturalised Japanese citizen, “spread false information, colluded with Japanese anti-China forces, and wantonly attacked and smeared China”, foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters on Monday. “For his own selfish interests, (Seki)
Argentine President Javier Milei on Sunday vowed to “accelerate” his libertarian reforms after a crushing defeat in Buenos Aires provincial elections. The 54-year-old economist has slashed public spending, dismissed tens of thousands of public employees and led a major deregulation drive since taking office in December 2023. He acknowledged his party’s “clear defeat” by the center-left Peronist movement in the elections to the legislature of Buenos Aires province, the country’s economic powerhouse. A deflated-sounding Milei admitted to unspecified “mistakes” which he vowed to “correct,” but said he would not be swayed “one millimeter” from his reform agenda. “We will deepen and accelerate it,” he
Japan yesterday heralded the coming-of-age of Japanese Prince Hisahito with an elaborate ceremony at the Imperial Palace, where a succession crisis is brewing. The nephew of Japanese Emperor Naruhito, Hisahito received a black silk-and-lacquer crown at the ceremony, which marks the beginning of his royal adult life. “Thank you very much for bestowing the crown today at the coming-of-age ceremony,” Hisahito said. “I will fulfill my duties, being aware of my responsibilities as an adult member of the imperial family.” Although the emperor has a daughter — Princess Aiko — the 23-year-old has been sidelined by the royal family’s male-only
RSS