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Many registration stations are seen idle most of the
time with one or two people showing up for
registration at an interval of several minutes.
Looking bored, those who register the voters and the
observers try to make good with their group
conversations and coffee time. It seemed all
registration stations were equipped with charcoal
furnaces, traditional clay coffee pot and all the
materials they needed for coffee making.
If only one person arrives to register, that would
keep only one person busy for not more than two or
three minutes while the others watched. Obviously
the election process will be warming up after the
registration, and the people at various registration
stations did not seem to have had handled a lot of
journalists since the registration began 20 days
ago, but at the same time there seemed to have been
some form of preparedness in anticipation of
journalists.
At various places Fortune visited, they
seemed to be aware of the need for journalists to
have passes from the National Electoral Board of
Ethiopia (NEBE). At one place there was complete
refusal by a representative of the NEBE to give any
information to any journalist that did not have the
pass.
"I am telling you this in front of the observer," he
kept saying seeking legitimacy for his refusal.
At another station an elderly guard manhandled
Fortune's reporter, tore his notes to pieces and
forced him out of the compound. Still these
individual behaviours were only limited and
Fortune was able to talk to a number of people,
both election officials and potential voters to get
a feel of the process.
All the stations are staffed with election officials
who undertake the registration and observe the
process. On Friday, January 29, 2010, in a small
room at Kebele 02 of the Bole District, which was a
registration station, there were three public
observers, one registrar and one election
coordinator. Thirty minutes after Fortune's
reporter had arrived at the site, one lady appeared
to register. Felekech Ketema, 55 and a mother of
five, acquired her voter card in a few minutes and
took time to talk to Fortune. The way she
spoke betrayed some level of political awareness.
Her answer was fast and to the point.
"It is my right of citizenship to vote and I believe
women should participate in the political
development of the country," she said.
She added that good governance can only be acquired
when there is a free and fair election, although she
asserted that she was going to vote for the same
party she had voted for in 2005.
She recommended that political parties should focus
on establishing an ethical society.
"I think that is the base for social, economic and
political development. If we can do that, our
country will be on the right path," Felekech added.
Her political zest in no way made up for the boredom
of sitting and waiting for voters to come forward.
Demeke Eshete, the election coordinator, folded his
legs and ran a hand through his hair as he talked to
Fortune.
"It may be part of our culture to wait until the
last minute. But I think people will get into it
soon," he said.
The NEBE had announced earlier last week that 17.5
million voters had registered in half the time
given, out of the total expected 32 million voters;
augmenting the board's feeling that the registration
would be completed in time. At the few stations
which Fortune had visited, most of the
registered voters were in their 20s and 30s, but
even people much older, including one 98 year old
man, had registered.
Demeke is, however, fearful that the expected 6,500
voters from the 18 stations in Kebele 02 may not
materialise, although in the one station Fortune
visited, 400 voters had registered by noon on
Friday, January 29, 2010. In other stations in Bole,
Arada, Kirkos and Lideta districts as few as six and
as many as 15 voters were registering daily,
occasional stations reporting higher numbers,
including an exception 154 in one station in Arada
District.
Those who came to register seemed mostly to have
made up their mind. Some openly said that they were
going to vote for the ruling EPRDF; others said
their choice was their own secret but admitted that
they had already made up their mind. A few said they
would wait for the election campaign to begin before
they would make their decision.
Bethel, a 21 year old resident of Lideta District,
said that she was determined not to miss her first
opportunity to vote.
"It is my obligation as a citizen," she said.
She declined to disclose which party she favoured,
but she said she would vote for that party that
cared for young people by creating job opportunity
and for women by creating equal opportunities.
An Adama resident, who had voted for CUD in 2005,
doubted that there could be the same spirit in 2010.
He insisted that he would not vote in this election
"This time I do not know who is who," he said.
Reyot Mattiwos, 36, a resident of Hawassa who works
in an aid organisation, says he never cared about
elections.
"Maybe in the final months of the campaign things
might get exciting and I might consider
registering," he said, not realising that less than
three weeks were left before the registration would
end.
The period that followed the 2005 tumultuous
election certainly has played in favour of the EPRDF
as some people Fortune spoke to were shifting
their support from CUD which they had voted for in
2005 to the ruling party which has made them feel
that "development was attainable."
These people are far from an acceptable statistical
sample, but the opposition parties have already
started expressing discontent at the way the
registration process is taking place and asking for
an extension of the registration period.
Hailu Shawel, leader of the All Ethiopia Unity Party
(AEUP), who was quoted in the papers as having said
that his party had a lot of supporters even in
Tigray - the stronghold of the ruling party, is
complaining that registration stations have been
located in difficult to find places for the
supporters of his party to easily register.
The ruling party was hindering the rural public in
Tigray from registering by employing them in food
for work programmes, says Seyee Abreha,
vice-president for public relations of the Unity for
Democracy and Justice (UDJ).
Beyene Petros (Prof.), chairman of United Ethiopian
Democratic Force (UEDF), also had this complaint.
"Teenagers under the age of 18 organised by the
ruling party have already acquired the voting
cards," he said.
These opposition leaders asked for an extension of
registration so they could mobilize their supporters
to register. Bereket Simon, member of the Central
Committee of the EPRDF, rejected the all charges
against his party.
"One million voters are registering daily. We cannot
say they are all EPRDF supporters," he said adding
that so many people would not register daily if the
registration places were out of way.
Apparently the game is afoot. The blame game will
continue, and the climax will be reached when
campaigns start on February 9, the day the
registration ends. They will be given a period when
each will show the best that they have got. The
verdict will be given by the voting public on May
23, 2010. |
