ETHIOPIA: Court overturns controversial law

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

ADDIS ABABA, 4 May 2005 (IRIN) - Ethiopia's high court on Tuesday overturned a controversial law that had effectively banned thousands of local observers from monitoring the country’s 15 May national election.

Judge Brehanu Teshome said the new ruling, introduced last month by the country's National Election Board, "contravened" the laws of the country.

The ruling, which came just 12 days before polling, meant local groups could now field election observers to monitor Ethiopia's third-ever democratic elections.

However, the director of a coalition of local groups that had planned to field 3,000 observers, Netsanet Demissie, said they would not be able to deploy nearly as many monitors.

"Although this is a landmark decision, it is a ruling tinged with sadness," Netsanet said at the federal high court in Addis Ababa.

He added: "We have shown that such arbitrary decisions will not be tolerated by the public, [but] we will not be able to deploy as many observers because we are so close to the elections and we do not have enough time for proper training."

"We still have to work out exactly how many observers we can deploy given the shortness of time," Netsanet said.

The contentious law was introduced on 5 April amid criticism from the European Union and the coalition group - the Organisation for Social Justice - who began legal action on 20 April.

Under the new law, local groups were required to have registered as election observers when they were originally founded, ruling out almost all 35 of the coalition’s members.

The Judge said Ethiopian election law did not require that observers be registered as long as they did not breach election laws when monitoring the polling.

The election board said they would appeal the ruling.

More than 25 million of Ethiopia's 71 million people have registered to vote in the legislative elections. Some 35 political parties will vie for seats in the 547-seat Council of People's Representatives.

Voters will also elect representatives to nine regional state parliaments that appoint the members of the 112-seat Council of the Federation, the upper house.

[ENDS]