Parliament amends electoral law

Ethiopia's parliament reformed the country's electoral law on Tuesday ahead of May's general election, but the ruling stopped short of hopes by opposition parties. It was the first time that the law had been amended since the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) came to power in 1991. The reform agreement was made by the EPRDF and the United Ethiopian Democratic Forces (UEDF), a 14-strong coalition of opposition groups. However, opposition groups insisted on Wednesday the reforms did not go far enough and said they are still undecided over whether they will participate in the 15 May elections. Merera Gudina, chairman of the UEDF, told IRIN their fundamental concerns over the impartiality of the country's electoral commission still remained. "The fundamental problem, the question of restructuring the electoral board, still remains," he said. "There are some minor changes, but it has not gone far enough. We are in a dilemma over whether to participate in the election because of this problem." Merera said the UEDF would announce within a month whether they would challenge the government after discussions with members of the coalition group. Tesfaye Mengesha, deputy head of the National Election Board, however rejected claims that the commission was linked to any political parties. "We are appointed by parliament," Tesfaye told IRIN. "We are non partisan." Merera said the parliament agreed to 20 changes of the 30 proposed. Among the most significant amendments was scrapping the number of signatures required for a candidate to stand in an election. Opposition groups were also allowed the right to call meetings and stage demonstrations, while access to state-controlled airtime has also been agreed upon. The EPRDF will get 44 percent of airtime. The two main coalition opposition groups will receive 23 percent each, while a further 10 percent will be divided up between minority parties. The reforms came as NGOs expressed concerns that they may be excluded from monitoring the elections. A network of NGOs believe that "vague wording" in the amendments could now exclude them from the process and are now seeking government assurances. The previous law specifically allowed for local NGOs to monitor the elections, but that has now been dropped and replaced by "people's organisations". "We have reason to suspect that this amendment was probably deliberately intended to exclude NGOs from any election monitoring activity," said an official from the Organisation for Social Justice in Ethiopia. The UEDF coalition currently has nine members in the House of People's Representatives, while the EPRDF has 481 members. The EPRDF, which ousted former leader Mengistu Haile Mariam in 1991 after a 17-year guerrilla war, won 481 seats in the 547-seat assembly in the last national elections in 2000. The next Ethiopian general elections are only the third democratic ballot in the country's history.