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There seems to be a lack of electrifying face-offs
to inject extraordinary energy into the campaign
during this election. When compared with the
previous three elections, however, the massive use
of posters in this year’s campaign is having its
impact on voters.
Elections in Ethiopia have been conducted for the
last 55 years. However, the types of elections have
varied considerably.
The elections conducted during the imperial regime
in 1955, 1961, 1965, 1969, and 1973 was a
nonpartisan election where political parties were
not allowed to operate much less take part in
elections. What was conducted in all five of those
elections was the Chamber of Deputies Election.
Then in February 01, 1987, there was a
Constitutional Referendum whose major agenda was to
have only one legal party, and with a single party,
the Worker’s Party of Ethiopia (WPE), the election
was conducted on June 14, 1987, for a National
Assembly of 835 seats. Mengistu Hailemariam was
elected President by the National Assembly on
September 10, 1987.
But since 1994, peoples’ representatives have been
elected by direct popular vote in 547
constituencies, each contributing one person to
Parliament using the first-past-the-post (simple
majority) system. Members serve five-year terms
until the next elections.
Next week the fourth such multiparty election will
take place.
Televised debates, town hall meetings, and campaign
advertisements, including banners, posters,
billboards, pins, t-shirts, text messages, as well
as city tours in trucks and automobiles have been
dominating the campaigns.
Of all these methods of campaigning, posters,
banners, and billboards have been the most dominant
and visible.
However, the contending political parties have some
rules to follow. Based on the Electoral Code of
Conduct, signed by many of the political parties,
the campaign rules prohibit parties from campaigning
within a 500 metre radius of schools, religious
centres, and market centres.
The campaigns and campaign advertising could impinge
on their choices, some portions of the electorate
believe, while others say that they are not be
affected by such activities.
Of the voters who believe that the campaign efforts
could alter their choices, Tewfik Abdella, 39,
married with two children, is one. A resident of the
Kolfe Keranio District Kebele 01, he is a
cross-country truck driver who has recently been to
Lalibela Town, North Wello Zone, Amhara Regional
State.
Tewfik was sitting at
DJ’s Café having his coffee and reading the
Wednesday papers. He is a politics aficionado, he
said. He seemed excited while sharing his experience
in Lalibela.
“Unlike what I observed in Addis Abeba, the whole
town is flooded with posters of Lidetu [Ayalew,
president of the Ethiopian Democratic Party (EDP)
who is running for the Parliament seat of Bugna
Wereda, North Wello Zone],” Tewfik told Fortune.
“Addis Abeba is swamped with the posters and banners
of the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic
Front.”
The EPRDF has made an attempt at innovative
billboard designs, erecting an image of a clock in
Meskel Square, Megenagna and Teklehaimanot, showing
the bee in the middle. This campaign advertisement
has got some people talking.
“It is very creative, and I liked it the moment I
saw it,” said Misrak Zenebe, 33, a secretary at a
private construction company. “But I would have
liked it better if they had hung up a real clock.”
Misrak is registered to
vote and has already made up her mind over which
party she is going to vote for on May 23, 2010.
“I made my choice even before I registered to vote,
and the whole campaign had nothing to do with it,”
she said.
However, some voters feel that they have actually
seen less posters in the campaign process. Solomon
Teka, 57, a tailor for 30 years at Minalesh Terra in
Merkato, lives in Lideta District, Kebele 29, with
his wife and six children. He is registered to vote,
and he has not seen as many posters as he hoped to
see this election, he said.
The only posters he has seen are the posters put up
by the Forum for Justice and Democratic Dialogue (FJDD),
a.k.a. Medrek, and the EPRDF.
“I saw Medrek’s banner, which has Negasso Gidada’s
picture, around Bole, but some posters are not big
enough to attract voters’ attention,” he said.
However, he mentioned that he usually hears
campaigns being conducted from cars.
It is not because they are not putting up posters,
say political parties, taking into account the
statements made by Solomon.
Posters that represent the party are not seen in
abundance because they are ripped off by unknown
third parties, the All Ethiopia Unity Party (AEUP)
chairman, Hailu Shawel (Eng) claims.
“We are contacting the police about the situation,”
Hailu said.
The party has spent more than 10,000 Br to put up
posters everywhere. But other people advertising
commercial stuff put glue on the AEUP’s posters and
place their posters on top, Mamushet Amare the AEUP
Executive Secretary, said.
“We have the evidence to prove it,” he said.
However, the party is conducting campaigns by car
and town hall meetings, both in Addis Abeba and
regional towns where the party has candidates,
according to Mamushet.
The claims of the AEUP are also shared by the
Coalition for Unity and Democracy Party (CUDP) to
some extent.
“We are posting posters both in Addis Abeba and in
regional states, but our posters are being ripped
off in the regions but not in Addis Abeba,” Ayele
Chamiso, chairman of the party, told Fortune.
The party is conducting town hall meetings and
campaigns at roads, Temesgen Zewde, of Medrek said.
“We are rigorously conducting our campaign and we
are reaching out to the public, not only through our
posters, but by other means, like distributing
brochures with information about the party,”
Temesgen said.
The incumbent is campaigning by allocating over 30
million Br, in cash and in kind. Prominent
businesspeople have raised around 20 million Br in
cash for the EPRDF’s election campaign.
In addition, the party is placing posters, and
candidates are introducing themselves by physically
approaching the public, Sekoture Getachew, the
EPRDF’s spokesperson, said.
Like Medrek, the EPRDF is also distributing
brochures that state the party’s mission and has
also posted big banners in the last couple of weeks.
“The party is conducting town hall meetings with the
electorate,” Alemayehu Tegenu, a candidate of the
EPRDF, told Fortune.
Driving around town in trucks delivering messages
through megaphones and loudspeaker is preferable,
according to some voters.
“This way the parties are taking their messages out,
which is more than posting a piece of paper on walls
or putting up banners,” Girma Belay, 48 said.
Like many elections, the 2010 National Elections
have also had some out of the ordinary comments from
some of the electorate. One was from Tigist Teferi,
20, a registered voter and a second year engineering
student at Addis Abeba University (AAU). For Tigist,
apart from the agenda of the parties, the overall
appearance of the candidates matters.
“I am going to vote for the AEUP since the
candidates are well spruced up; the others look a
bit shabby to me, and representatives should also
look presentable,” Tigist told Fortune.
The way the posters are being posted is so reckless
and uncontrolled, a registered voter who lives in
Arada District and requested anonymity claimed.
“When I came home from work, I saw a poster of the
EPRDF on my gatepost,” the voter said.
He is not happy with that, and since he is aware of
the legal ramifications, he did not do anything
about it, he said.
Abraham Sasam from Hawassa (Awassa), 42, has a
slightly different perspective when it comes to
viewing the parties.
“I really appreciate the signs selected by the AEUP,
Medrek, and the CUDP. It is something that is done
by hand,” Abraham said.
The whole campaign was detached at the beginning,
but now things are really heating up, according to
Abraham.
“The way the campaign has been going since April is
beyond my expectations, from the posters to the
campaigns from cars and everything,” said another
Hawassa resident, Meseret Belayneh, 39.
Of the registered voters in Bahir Dar, Melaku
Asmamaw, mid 20s, wants the parties to improve their
plans and strategies rather than the rhetoric and
the way they present things, he said. However,
parties have gone on making preparations for the
election. Their major obstacles are financing and
reaching people who live in remote areas of the
countryside.
With the EPRDF acquiring the lion’s share of the
seven million Birr in public financing allocated by
the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE), all
political parties have deployed the amounts of money
they received for various campaigning purposes.
The financing was distributed in rounds, and, during
the first round, 10pc of the budget was distributed
to 63 political parties on January 22, 2010, each
party getting 9,143 Br. The second round’s total
distribution was over 3.92 million Br, which was
55pc of the total amount. It was distributed among
15 political parties with seats in Parliament and
regional councils on February 18, 2010.
The third and the final round of distributions
started on April 1, 2010, and the money is still
being distributed to the parties. For this final
round, 48 political parties received a total of
about 2.42 million Br.
Of the third round, 25pc is allocated based on the
number of candidates and 10pc based on the number of
female candidates, Mohammed said.
The budget for public financing was prepared for the
first time. Political parties were consulted on July
29, 2009, prior to the final approval of the NEBE on
January 18, 2010, Merga Bekana (Prof), chairman of
the NEBE said.
The progress of the campaign in Bahir Dar is being
aggressively held better than ever before, some
voters in Bahir Dar believe. Parties are hanging
posters on households and public centres, in places
where people often gather together.
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