With Ethiopia preparing to hold parliamentary elections on May 24, the timing of Sherman’s remarks was unfortunate. “Ethiopia is a democracy that is moving forward in an election that we expect to be free, fair and credible and open and inclusive in ways that Ethiopia has moved forward in strengthening its democracy,” Sherman said. “Every time there is an election it gets better and better.”
In reality, however, Ethiopia has been backsliding toward authoritarian one-party rule. The ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), which has been in power for the last 23 years, has won each of the last five elections, and has recently used a slew of harsh new laws to stifle dissent and silence any opposition to the incumbent party. The country’s one-time vocal opposition is severely diminished, making Ethiopia a de facto one-party state. In a statement earlier this year, 33
“This election is only ceremonial, it’s not really to win the democratic process and empower the people,” Yilkal Getnet, the head of the opposition Blue Party, told Bloomberg last month, adding the upcoming plebiscite “will result in another landslide victory for the ruling coalition.”
Sherman’s statements drew quick condemnations. “
Freedom House ranks Ethiopia as “Not Free” in its annual Freedom in the World index.
A closer look at Ethiopia’s last two elections paint a clear picture. In what was largely seen as the country’s first genuine experiment with electoral democracy in 2005, the EPRDF opened up the political space to opposition groups and free press. By all accounts, the EPRDF lost that election. But it claimed victory even before the vote counting was completed, leading to post-election violence in which
“The 2005 electoral process did not fulfill Ethiopia’s obligations to ensure the exercise of political rights and freedoms necessary for genuinely democratic elections,” said the Carter Center, which observed the elections, in a report after the poll.
In the most recent vote in 2010, the EPRDF won all but two of the 547 parliamentary seats. U.S. embassy officials, independent observers and the media were denied accreditation and permission to travel outside of Ethiopia’s capital to observe the polls. “An environment conducive to free and fair elections was not in place even before Election Day,” the White House,
Little has changed in Ethiopia in the intervening years. In fact, the EPRDF has tightened control over the media, jailing or forcing journalists into exile in record numbers. “The Ethiopian government’s systematic repression of independent media has created a bleak landscape for free expression ahead of the May 2015 general elections,”
Ethiopia blocks almost all diaspora-based Ethiopian websites, and it has allegedly
The U.S. views Ethiopia as a staunch ally in the so-called “war on terror.” Given that dynamic, Washington has habitually looked the other way in the face of gross human rights abuses, but contrary to Sherman’s comments, the U.S. government has often acknowledged the lack of freedom and the tightening of the political space in Ethiopia. In a January statement, for example, the
Sherman should take cues from organizations such as Freedom House, which is