The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia said the Government of Ethiopia has rejected European Union’s (EU) preconditions to deploy election observers describing the preconditions as violation of sovereignty of the country.
EU, which requested the government of Ethiopia to send its team of election observers has demanded the Government of Ethiopia to bring its own VSAT telecommunications for the elections observers it is planning to deploy to observe Ethiopia’s 6th general election scheduled to take place in June this year.
The EU has also demanded to announce election result ahead of Ethiopian of National Electoral Board of Ethiopia, which the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia, Ambassador Dina Mufti, denounced in strong terms as violation of Ethiopia’s sovereignty.
Speaking to journalists Ambassador Dina indicated that the two preconditions set by the EU election observers’ is not accepted by the Government of Ethiopia.
As a result, the EU has decided to deploy its election observers. Ambassador Dina noted that certifying credibility of Ethiopia’s election is up to the people of Ethiopia primarily and the independent National Electoral Board of Ethiopia – but not the European Union.
Ambassador Dina also stated that that the preconditions set by the EU electoral observers to announce the election result and make statement ahead of the legally established independent National Electoral Board of Ethiopia, is like demanding Ethiopians and the sovereign nation Ethiopia to be ruled by Europeans Union.
In a related development, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in his message to the people of Ethiopia in commemoration of the 80th anniversary of Patriots Day, which will be commemorated tomorrow, noted that he expects Ethiopia’s development partners to support decision of Ethiopians but not to decide for Ethiopians.
May 5, 1941 marks the end of the Italian occupation in Ethiopia after five years of battle between the Italian fascist troops and Ethiopian patriots. In 1935 Italian Fascist army has invaded Ethiopia to revenge the defeat of Italian colonizers at the Battle of Adwa on 1 March 1896 by Ethiopian patriots mobilized from all four corners of the country who were led by Emperor Menelik II.