ETHIOPIA I DOMESTIC POLITICS I interview with Mr Sekuture Getachew (EPRDF)

(Paris, January, 30th 2008)

Sekuture Getachew. – I came to France due to an invitation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for a program called « personalities of future » and to become acquainted with the French political system.

Les Nouvelles d'Addis. – Beside the program devoted to our political system, did you have specific contacts here ?

SG. – I had the opportunity to meet different people, from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and also Mayors of several places like Nantes and Blanc Mesnil the sister city of Debre Berhan. I met also journalists of Le Figaro and people of other institutions.

LNA. – Here in France it is difficult to understand the Ethiopian system. Even if we are told that it is a federal country, it is something strange that the gouvernmental party is a coalition of regional or ethnical parties. How does this really work ?

SG. – Ethiopia is a very diverse country as you know. We do have 86 nations and nationalities. When we structured this political system, the most feasable structure was federal based on national and regional administrations. So we have nine regional states in Ethiopia. They are independent by themselves. They have their own Parliament and their own legislation. They also participate at the federal level in the federal Parliament. There is also the Federation House which is like the Upper House. That is our system. About the political parties, some of them are national based, at the federal level and are multiethnic. Concerning EPRDF, it is a coalition of four national parties but the coalition is multiethnic by itself.

LNA. – A party at the national level is not obliged to organize itself along ethnical lines. He may have a name like CUD (1) and be present in several regions with the same name.

SG. – Yes. Some political parties who do have a program focused on a specific nation or region will be obliged to organize themselves at a regional level. But it is open to anyone to have a national program and to exercise its activities in different regions of Ethiopia.

LNA. – How would you describe the present political situation three years almost after the parliamentary election and the tension which followed ?

SG. – We had a beautiful electoral process in 2005 but after the election day we had some problems between the political parties. We have tried to negotiate with the opposition parties but unfortunately it did not work. Some of them have joined the Parliament but some opted for a kind of violent action which created the problems. After some judicial procedures and after the pardon given by the government things have now improved. The Millenium celebrations have created some kind of good will among the people. We are approaching the local elections and by-elections. Since the political atmosphere is now better, we think the process of building democracy in Ethiopie will continue in a favourable way.

LNA. – Before talking about the next elections I would like to come back the tension which occurred three years ago. Would you say that the fault is only on one side or would you accept that on your side political mistakes were also made ? I speak about the period after the May election and before October 2005.

SG. – You know, the main problem is to accept the rule of law. We have conducted a very good election but the opposition did not want to accept its defeat at the federal level. We accepted our defeat in Addis Ababa and congratulated the opposition. We told them we would hand over the administration of the city to them. But they said the problem is that they have won at the federal level. And we had to go into an investigation concerning 199 constituencies. This was done with the presence of international monitoring missions like European Union, Carter Center and also African Union. After that we had to go in a rerun in 31 constituencies and that proved that EPRDF has gained back these seats. The problem is that they went to a violent action and during this event the way we handled the matter was correct but we do accept that due to some capacity problems people were wounded and about 140 died.

LNA. – My question was not really about the demonstrations. It was about the fact that something your majority decided did not encourage opposition members to enter the Parliament. The moderates were not in a good position vis-à-vis the radical elements of their party. Why did the outcoming Parliament decided to change the existing rule when a group wants to table something for discussion. It was sufficient to have 21 signatures for that and at once the Parliament decided you shall have a majority of 50 % plus one vote. This was a blow against the minority. The radicals said to the moderates : if you enter the Parliament you will never have a chance to table an item with this new rule. I think this was a political mistake.

SG. – A Parliament has the right to pass a legislation at any time if it is in the session. Until the last day it has the mandate to legislate. But there was also a new incident. Those who have joined the Parliament had the opportunity to negotiate with the ruling party and they have come out with a new parliamentary procedure.

LNA. – This happened much later but changing the rule before the new Parliament could meet was surprising.

SG. – Some people will consider it as surprising. This is the way politics work. We have to legislate and the next Parliament, if it says it should be changed, it can change the rule. We have got a very good parliamentary procedure which is enacted by the consensus of the political parties which have joined the Parliament. And we are working with that. People are comfortable with that.

LNA. – Are the opposition members in the Parliament satisfied with the way it is functioning ? Do they intervene, table motions and such things ?

SG. – Yes. In fact the opposition will never be satisfied. You know that. They have got the opposition day when they can table their own agenda and question the Prime Minister for a session. They have the possibility to arrange or to sort the agendas through a consultative committee whithin which all the political parties are represented. They can discuss and negotiate over that. They can decide how much time could be allocated to the parties. I think most of them are satisfied by this.

LNA. – How many opposition MPs are present in the Parliament ?

SG. – 136, something like that.

LNA. – The seats which are not occupied for the time beeing…

SG. – 38.

LNA. – These seats were won by the persons who were arrested in 2005. Now we come to the coming elections. The local elections for the woredas and the kebeles will be held at the same time as the by-elections. So you will fill the vacancies in the Parliament. Will this also happen for the Addis Ababa assembly ?

SG. – Yes. We have 38 vacancies in the Parliament. 17 of them are for Addis Ababa. The capital city administration is also vacant and it is led by a caretaker administration. So parties are going to compete for this also. In some regions, for example in the Amhara and Oromo regions there are also vacant seats.

LNA. – The electoral results in Addis Ababa were surprising. You hardly see in African countries that the opposition wins all the seats of the capital city. How did you explain for yourself this defeat which was may be a shock for the EPRDF ?

SG. – Immediately after the election we had our executive committee of the EPRDF to evalute the situation. And how did we analyse this defeat ? First, dissatisfaction among the people regarding good governance at the local level and also high unemployment and poverty. It was a desperate condition. We have tried to change the life style of the people by engaging in development activities. But these activities came late for the people could not feel that life was changing. They want more. So the opposition using these tools, the good governance and the big unemployment, tried to recruit so many people and they got support. We can say that was the problem and there were some other elements regarding this. The opposition played some cards which were not good. Creating problems among national ethnic groups. And there was some foreign intervention. People were working to create some orange revolution. They wanted to change our system.

LNA. – I remember of the Mayor of your party, Ato Arkebe,who made some efforts for Addis Ababa. But he came too late because his predecessor had not been very active. Did the EPRDF evalute this mistake : to let the town for too long in a situation of stagnation ?

SG. – You know that the EPRDF came from an armed struggle. We were engaged in rural areas. We did not have the know how to manage urban activities. So we took a long time to mature in this respect and the previous EPRDF administration had some problems. We have managed to change and to institute a new transitional administration for Addis Ababa. Arkebe Oqubay was doing well but this was done for only two years. This period was very active but it was too short to have a full effect on daily life.

LNA. – These next elections will take place in May. Do you feel there might be tension again because the opposition is strong in Addis Ababa ?

SG. – We don’t feel like that because every one has drawn a lesson from the past election. It was not good for every one. So we want to have a very peaceful and democratic electoral process and the parties who opted for participation in this election said they want to be engaged in a peaceful way. We don’t think there will be tension. We hope that the EPRDF will regain the lost constituencies in Addis Ababa and in other places.

LNA. – You work for the external relations of your party. What kind of contacts do you have with opposition parties ?

SG. – We have interparties discussions with all main political parties (2). We have dialogue with the CUD faction in the Parliament, with EDUP, Lidetu’s party, with the UEDF of M Beyene Petros and with OFDM chaired by Bultcha Demeksa . We had negociations for the electoral law, for the parliamentary procedures, for the press law which is not yet finalized. There are some problems while having this dialogue but we are trying this.

LNA. – The opposition has often critized the composition of the National Electoral Board (NEB). Has there been some modification in this institution ?

SG. – Yes. The main agreement between EPRDF and opposition parties was about producing a list of candidates proposed by the main parties to be nominated at NEB. A long list was then proposed to the Prime Minister to make a selection for nomination. These candidates were not members of any party and some candidates presented by the opposition have been selected to become members of the NEB. The new NEB is now in function. A month ago NEB has conducted a training for the political parties and among 91 groups and parties 56 of them have come. So we had a good training.

(1) CUD : Coalition for Unity and Democracy. Several parties joined together to form the coalition. Now this acronym is used by one group opposed to enter the Parliament and another who accepted.

(2) EDUP : Ethiopian Democratic Union Party. A previous member of the CUD. It left since it was favourable to enter the Parliament.
UEDF : United Ethiopian Democratic Forces. The second coalition of the opposition. It is rather strong in the south of Ethiopia.
OFDM : Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement.Democratic Movement.