Cape Town — The United States and the European Union have held back from endorsing Ethiopia's elections on Sunday as free and fair, both criticizing the government of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi for narrowing "political space" in the country.
However, neither the response of the U.S. nor that of the EU suggests that their concerns seriously threaten relations with Addis Ababa.
"An environment conducive to free and fair elections was not in place even before election day," said a National Security Council spokesman, Mike Hammer, in Washington.
"In recent years, the Ethiopian government has taken steps to restrict political space for the opposition through intimidation and harassment, tighten its control over civil society, and curtail the activities of independent media."
In its preliminary report on the elections, the EU's observer mission said the electoral process fell short of international standards, "notably regarding the transparency of the process and the lack of a level playing field for all contesting parties."
The mission said it had seen cases where state resources had been used for election campaigning, and "the playing field... was not sufficiently balanced, leaning in favour of the ruling party in many areas."
Both the American and European reactions noted that the elections had been peaceful, but the EU report said the "sheer volume and consistency" of complaints about harassment and intimidation, including violence, in the final week of the campaign had been a matter of concern.
The EU's foreign affairs chief, Catherine Ashton, issued a statement recognizing "the challenging environment in which these elections took place" and calling on Ethiopians to "commit to further strengthening democracy."
She added: "The EU stands ready to work with Ethiopia to address these challenges and to further deepen our relations with the government and the peoples of Ethiopia."
In Washington, Hammer said that Ethiopia and the U.S. have "a multifaceted relationship and share a number of important interests."
He added: "We will work diligently with Ethiopia to ensure that strengthened democratic institutions and open political dialogue become a reality for the Ethiopian people."
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What a wrong generalization! I am an Ethiopian and I know how the whole process was. So I do have to hear from US or EU about the process. It is up to the Ethiopian people to judge the process and the political environment in the country. I personally do not accept any unfair and biased report from foreign country. The Ethiopian people do understand any foreign involvement will result a conflict in the country and we want to live in peace. No more death and conflict. We choose our leaders not US or EU. We decide on our country not others. The greedy opposition parties failed to honour our vote in 2005 and we punished them this year. They are not working for the interest of the people rather for their power, and they are accountable for foreign countries and Diaspora. They failed to work together and they fight each other. The people lost faith on them because they do not listen to the people rather they listen to diplomats and foreigners. Their ignorance and selfishness make them to be punished by the vote of the people. We need new energetic faces from the opposition not Beyene, Bulcha, merara or else. I am not saying that the winner is good but EPRDF is by far better than the opposition. Now the dogs are parking and the camels are moving in their direction.
" .. U.S., Europe Criticize Elections but Will Work with Meles .."
Yes.
And will work with dictatorial and/or tainted regimes that emerged from marred elections in Egypt. And in Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, South Africa, Iraq, Afghanistan, ...
But it will not work with those in Iran, Zimbabwe, ... China, former USSR, ..
[Hint: We will work with OIUR lackeys who (regardless of their occassional strident, half-baked marxist rhetoric) do not threaten our imperial control and plunder of local resources at the expense of the native (and have no qualms about slaughtering the belligerent local patriots on our behalf).]
the ethiopian ellection, is completly pseudoellection in which the ruling party suppressed the opposing parties,harrasing and killing the citizens. how can one ellect without being registered before? the government only regitered their own members. they sytemetically refuse other citezens who are not their members.for axample here on gindebert/oromia all high school students and any other citizens who are not the government members were not registered.
I srictly have acomment on the report which says the "ellection was completed peace fully", this has tobe as aresult of misinformation. I know some one has been killed in Oromia/west shoa zone/ gindebarat district by the government body. the government only tries to immitate peaceful proccess in capital where he think there may be an observers.
Ethiopian government harass the oromo people especially on this election .in university they intermediate th graduation class by saying that "if you are not elect us you will not get work".in addition they told to them that "we will know who elect us by any mechanism".. i am very ashamed by this election. at this time in our university {the center of OPDO} intemedation is continued for who did not elect them