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EU report cites concerns on Ethiopian vote counting
Wednesday, May 25, 2005 Posted: 1326 GMT (2126 HKT)
Former President Carter undermined Ethiopia's electoral process by his early blessing of the May 15 vote, the European Union report says.
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) -- Ethiopia's electoral board appears to have lost control of the vote counting for the May 15 legislative polls, European Union election observers said in a report obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday.
The confidential report went on to say the EU might have to make a public denunciation of developments to distance itself from "the lack of transparency, and assumed rigging" of the vote
"Ten days after the polling day, the situation is of political uncertainty and informational chaos regarding the results of the election," according to the confidential report.
"The National Electoral Board does not seem to be in control of the counting operation by the constituency electoral committees and limits itself to passively receive the reports from a limited number of constituencies."
While the report was confidential, the observers went public Wednesday with fears that after voting and campaigning that had been unprecedentedly open, the whole election process was being undermined by delays in the vote count that were raising the risk of fraud.
Early results showed the opposition making strong gains -- it had held 12 seats in the departing 547-seat parliament -- but a lead for the ruling party that has held power since ending an oppressive dictatorship in 1991.
So far, results from 157 constituencies have been released, with 61 seats going to the opposition. Tension was high as the nation awaited comprehensive results, and both opposition and ruling parties claimed victory.
The National Electoral Board had promised to release provisional results Saturday, but only a handful of counts came in. It has been releasing new counts each day.
The EU report also said former U.S. President Carter, who led a team of 50 election observers, undermined the electoral process and EU criticism with "his premature blessing of the elections and early positive assessment of the results."
Unless there is a "drastic reverse toward good democratic practice" the observer team and EU "will have to publicly denounce the situation."
"Otherwise, the EU jointly with ex-President Carter will be held largely responsible for the lack of transparency, and assumed rigging, of the elections."
The opposition repeatedly has accused the ruling party of fraud, though foreign monitors have said the elections were the most open in Ethiopia's history.
The opposition threatened to boycott parliament if the allegations of vote fraud were not properly investigated by a joint team that should include representatives of political parties, electoral authorities and international observers.
EU observers had said soon after ballots were cast that the vote was "the most genuinely competitive elections the country has experienced" despite some problems and human rights violations....
