The EU report also said former U.S. President Carter, who led a team of 50 election observers, undermined the electoral process and EU criticism with "his premature blessing of the elections and early positive assessment of the results."
Unless there is a "drastic reverse toward good democratic practice" the observer team and EU "will have to publicly denounce the situation."
"Otherwise, the EU jointly with ex-President Carter will be held largely responsible for the lack of transparency, and assumed rigging, of the elections."
"Assumed" hehe and Even CNN can't keep it all in
The opposition repeatedly has accused the ruling party of fraud, though foreign monitors have said the elections were the most open in Ethiopia's history.
The opposition threatened to boycott parliament if the allegations of vote fraud were not properly investigated by a joint team that should include representatives of political parties, electoral authorities and international observers.
EU observers had said soon after ballots were cast that the vote was "the most genuinely competitive elections the country has experienced" despite some problems and human rights violations.
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, known as one of the continent's more progressive leaders, has pledged that his sometimes authoritarian government would introduce greater democracy. Many saw the polls as a test of his commitment to reform.
authoritarian... Progressive..... hmmm I thought i heard this before somewhere
A representative of the 2005 Ethiopian National Election Coordinating Task Force handed out a press release alleging that "as voting was coming to an end [in the May 15 elections], the Prime Minister declared an illegal state of emergency" and accusing the government of muzzling the media and attacking opposition poll watchers.
Awaiting the electoral commission’s final report, the statement called on the U.S. government "to support the stand by the Ethiopian people in their fight for the full realization of their rights. We ask you to support the struggle for democracy."
Former Ethiopian Foreign Minister Goshu Wolde praised the push by the United States for greater political inclusion in Ethiopia and explained that the demonstrations had two aims: "One, to impress on the Government of the United States, which has always insisted it is for democracy and liberty all over the world, that in Ethiopia liberty and democracy are now in jeopardy" -- with the hope that the United States would make sure "the electoral process comes to its logical conclusion."
such a great president that Jimmy the good ethiopian visitors to foggybottom had to say
marxist authoritarian dicators need to defraud an election you know who to call operators are standing by
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