Carving out “rules of the game”: Ethiopia’s unfolding

Amendment of the various legislations which were considered to be repressive including the FDRE Constitution has been on the top of the listof topics frequently raised within the Ethiopian political elite. Leaders and members of the opposition political parties and political activists, not to mention the international community, hardly fail to raise the issue of the so called repressive laws whenever they get an audience with leaders of the ruling party: the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). Nevertheless, the incumbent EPRDF was equally adamant about the prudence of its legal framework, in its entirety, and disregarded such demands. In fact, in some instances, leaders of the ruling party were heard going to a greater length to show that the laws and regulations in question could as well be one of the best and well-balanced in the world. Despite the stalemate, members of oppositioncamp and political activists never relented, and continued to push the government to amend some of its laws. One suchlegislation was Proclamation 532/99, a piece of legislation dealing with the establishment of the National Electoral Board of Ethiopian (NEBE). At the center of the argument with this proclamation is, of course, its impartiality. According to the opposition, the Board is not an impartial body, altogether, and that it is there merely to serve the interests of the incumbent;and hence,undermining thesanctity of a democratic and free election. Their longstanding question and demand seem to have gained momentum when the government expressed its willingness to discuss the amendmentof some of these controversial legislations, albeit on the verge of an all-out political turmoil in the country. The rapprochement indeed resulted in the revision of the said legislations after a major leadership change in the ruling EPRDF itself. The new administration, in what was said to be a radical shift in its long-held beliefs, went even further by rolling out political measures which are expected to widen the political space, createan enabling political environment and lay down an all-inclusive level field for all players of the game. Many, including the members of the opposition and political activists,give the credit for the newly elected Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD),largely for the establishment of an independent team of legal scholars to scrutinize gaps, challenges and problems related to the legislations of the country. Legislations such as the anti-terrorism proclamations, the media, the CSO andthe election laws, which were regarded by many political players and activists as a hindrance to do their day to day activities,are now either under review or tabled before the highest legislative body of the country for their long-overdue amendments. Subsequently, a new proclamation, which provides for the establishment of NEBE, was tabled before the House of People’s Representatives (HPR) midweek, the past week. Finally, members of the opposition and political activists are about to see one of their long-standing demands addressed by ruling party. Even though the draft bill entertains different concerns, many consider the new draft proclamation to be anend to what they say was a case of excessive interference of the Government of Ethiopia (GoE) on the electoral body of the nation. Commentators seem to have welcomed the draft proclamation already; some are even describing it as “the most liberal electoral legislation”.Nevertheless, it is also entertaining severe criticism from some in the opposition political camp. Pointing out that the discussionregarding the amendmentof the proclamation was started way before the ascent of the new PM, asit was at the center of negotiation with the ruling party before the leadership change; some politicians express their reservation with regard to the scope of amendment. “Our previous negotiation was on how to amend the electoral system of the country, including but not limited to the organizational structure of the Board. However, the new proclamation is only dealing with the organizational structure of the Board,” argued Wasyehun Tesfaye, head of the research department of the Ethiopian Democratic Party (EDP), in a recent phone interview with The Reporter. For wasyehun,although it is a good start, the scope of amendment ishardly what he expected.