EC to help ensure free and fair elections

The European Commission (EC) has pledged over € 500,000 to help ensure democratic and fair elections in Ethiopia in 2005. The funding is part of a worldwide initiative for developing countries worth around € 31 million aimed at ensuring global “peace and stability”. Opposition parties are gearing up for the elections in a bid to end the decade-long rule of the coalition Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). The EPRDF won the last election in 2000 taking 472 of the 522 seats. But opposition parties complained of harassment during polling. In Ethiopia, the EC money will be used to support the German Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) organisation which has been working in Ethiopia since the 1960s. “Like many other countries in Africa, Ethiopia is in a process of transforming itself economically, socially and politically towards a more open, pluralistic and democratic society,” FES said. The organisation said it had helped educate some 150,000 voters during the last elections – the second democratic elections ever to take place in the impoverished country. The European Union is the biggest international donor to Ethiopia. In a statement, the EC said the financing came under the European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR). Chris Patten, the European Commissioner for External Relations, said the funding would be used to support non-governmental organisations. “Promoting human rights, democratisation and the rule of law fosters international peace and stability,” he added in the statement released by the Commission. “This is a sensible and constructive form of pre-emption to which the EU can happily subscribe.”