The 2008 Ethiopian local elections: The return of electoral authoritarianism

Abstract

Ethiopia carried out local elections for neighbourhood (kebele) and county (woreda) assemblies on 13 and 20 April 2008, respectively.1 By law, these elections were supposed to be conducted in 2005, but the chaotic period after the general elections that year made it impossible to carry out the local polls. Considering the formative character of the 2005 general elections, where the opposition for the first time challenged the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), and the dramatic political crackdown in the post-election period, the conduct of the 2008 local elections is important in understanding the status and direction of Ethiopia's overall process of democratization. The constrained political context and government strategies of intimidation and harassment – leading the main opposition parties to withdraw from the local elections – signal the return of electoral authoritarianism in Ethiopia. Since the regime change in 1991 Ethiopia has fitted the description of a hybrid regime.2 The country has a democratic constitution and a form of multi-party elections normally linked to liberal democracies, but its practices are highly authoritarian and basic human rights are undermined. As in other electoral authoritarian states,3 multi-party elections are largely a means to sustain the incumbent regime's own power. Free competition between parties is not allowed and voters have been under severe pressure to vote for the ruling party. This ensured that the EPRDF won more than 95 percent of the votes in all the elections conducted until 2005.

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