319 International Observers to Monitor Elections

2 May 2005

Some 319 international observers will be deployed for the 15 May federal and regional parliamentary elections, the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) announced today.

Chairman of the Board, Kemal Bedri told a press conference that most of the observers were drawn from institutions like the European Union, the Carter Center, the African Union and the Arab League.
The United States of America, India, Japan, China, Turkey and Russia will also deploy observers from their countries or their respective embassies in Addis Ababa, Kemal said. He added that the European Union and the Carter Center have already deployed some of their delegations for pre-election observation.

Asked about the NEBE’s Board’s position regarding local observers, Kemal said the Board had issued a directive for domestic organisations interested in monitoring the elections in accordance with its legal mandate. According to the Board’s directive, such institutions are required to be independent and produce evidence stating that election observation was one of their objectives upon establishment.

Commenting on the Board’s mechanism of addressing complaints forwarded to it by opposition parties, the Chairman said that the NEBE has been responding to alleged intimidation and violations of rights of candidates by presenting the cases to Political Parties’ Joint Forums established from federal to polling station levels, and also by sending investigating teams to areas where such abuses were alleged to have been committed.

Following complaints from opposition parties, the Board had taken measures against some election officers who were found to be involved in illegal acts, Kemal said. They have been expelled from their positions, and were facing court procedures, he added.

Kemal said journalists covering the elections needed to bring to the NEBE documentation from the Ministry of Information showing that they are working journalists. The NEBE would then issue to the journalists an identity card that would enable them to cover the voting process at polling stations.