ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA — Ethiopians were voting Sunday in a first round of elections that the main opposition coalition boycotted to protest alleged intimidation by ruling party officials.
Some 4.5 million candidates are vying for nearly 4 million seats on neighborhood councils and in parliament. A second round will be held April 20.
However, Human Rights Watch predicted that the vote would not be fair, saying opposition candidates and voters were threatened, attacked and arrested during the run-up to the elections.
Ethiopia’s largest coalition of opposition parties said some 14,000 of its candidates were forced to drop out after being threatened or prevented from registering.
Government and election officials denied the allegations and said they expect the vote to be Ethiopia’s freest and fairest.
Voters lined up Sunday to cast ballots, some in the deeply devout Horn of Africa nation skipping their morning worship for the election.
“They didn’t go to church,” said Negash GebreYohannis, one of five observers elected by his community to monitor the vote at his local polling station.
Teacher Asrat Fanta, 43, cast a ballot for the ruling party.
“It’s a good government,” Fanta said.
Ethiopia has struggled in the past with irregular elections, notably in the 2005 general elections, in which security forces killed 193 protesters in the aftermath of the elections.
But some expressed confidence that this year’s elections will go smoothly.
“I don’t think we will have problems similar to the May 2005 elections,” said Bezunesh Yimam, a 51-year-old teacher.
“Everything seems to be calm, and hopefully we will get a party that stands for the people.” Bezunesh said she is voting for a party that will provide “the right service that I’ve been deprived of.” Others were less hopeful.
Letarik Chane, a 22-year-old housekeeper, said her bitterness over events in 2005 led her to abstain from voting.
“In the last election, I waited for a full day to vote and was really disappointed in the aftermath of the results,” she said.
“I do not want to repeat the same mistake again.” Election officials say there are 26 million registered voters, about a third of Ethiopia’s estimated population of 80 million.
The United Ethiopian Democratic Forces, the largest coalition of opposition parties, was boycotting the vote, leader Beyene Petros said.
Beyene said if any of his party’s 6,000 candidates win because their names remain on the ballots — which were printed before the boycott — they will withdraw.
Another opposition group said around 3,000 of its candidates also dropped out in similar circumstances.
