Opposition to Announce Decision to Join Or Boycott Parliament in Two Weeks

Dagnachew Teklu, Addis Ababa from The Daily Monitor

Opposition parties will announce their final decision either to join or boycott the parliament within the coming two weeks.

The opposition parties, particularly the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) and United Ethiopian Democratic Forces (UEDF) are expected to make their final announcement in mid of September 2005.

Sources told The Daily Monitor on Monday that they are currently discussing the matter with their supporters in and outside the country.

The parties said that they have not yet reached any decision to make public their position of either joining or boycotting the parliament.

Sources in the CUD indicated that they are still undertaking public forums out side Addis Ababa with their supporters decide on the matter.

"The forums that we held in the past weeks in Addis Ababa helped us to get feedback on the matter. Our decision would be made based on these feedbacks from our supporters," the source said.

Asked about their supporter's response on the ongoing forums, the officials said that their supporters have given them a mixed opinions on the matter.

"We can't say that all of them are telling us not to join the parliament. It is a mixed idea. Some of them told us not to get into the parliament while the others advised us to get in to the parliament and continue our struggle. But it is not the time to say that we have accepted this and rejected that. We have to wait till the end," they said.

According to the officials the final decision would be announced following the announcement of the EU Election Observers Mission in Ethiopia (EU EOME) in mid September.

The final report of the EU EOME will be made public on 23 September 2005, before the opening of the parliament.

The parliament is scheduled to start its New Year work by the end of September 2005.

CUD officials also indicated that their public forums in Addis Ababa have been suspended last week due to disagreement with the concerned bureau which is responsible to give licenses for such forums in the city.

"In the past we have conducted forums without any preconditions. But now the concerned bodies put some preconditions to hold the forums. The precondition asks that we take responsibility for discipline problems which they claim have been witnessed last week. But there were no discipline problems committed in the past forum at the National Lottery Administration hall," sources added.

However the administration said that some property damage has occurred during the forum at the hall.

CUD will continue to hold similar forums out side Addis Ababa in the coming weeks.

The National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) yesterday announced the final results of the May national election where the ruling EPRDF won 327 seats while Coalition and United Ethiopian Democratic Forces won 109 and 52 seats respectively.

The Board which released the final results on Monday also released official results for 31 constituencies where re-run elections took place on 21 August 2005.

Official results for 22 of the 23 constituencies in the Somali State where late elections were conducted on the same date have also been announced.

According to the NEBE, the Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) won the re-run elections in all the 31 constituencies while the Somali Peoples' Democratic Party (SPDP) won elections in the State by securing all the 22 seats for the House of Peoples' Representatives and 161of the 182 seats in the regional council.

"EPRDF won a total of 327 seats for the federal parliament, while CUD and UEDF gained 109 and 52 seats respectively. SPDP got 23 seats followed by OFDM (Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement) which secured 11 seats," NEBE said.

It said that another parties have also won over 20 seats at the parliament.

EPRDF has won elections in Amhara, Tigray, SNNP and Oromia States, while CUD won the Addis Ababa City Administration. In Harari State, a coalition of parties with the highest votes will form a government.

Deputy Head of the NEBE Secretariat, Tesfaye Mengesha said the NEBE is proud to successfully conduct the most contested elections in the country's history.

"The NEBE has learnt a valuable lesson from this year's elections, which would help it to undertake future elections more efficiently," he added.

Official results for the remaining one constituency in the Somali State will be released as soon as the complaints investigation is completed.

"By-elections will be carried out for Arsi Negele constituency in East Shoa zone of the Oromia state where the death of a UEDF candidate-elect was reported.

Are they telling us they have to wait an approval from Ms. Anna Gomez whether to join or not?