Abiy Ahmed’s Elections: Democracy for Those Who Participate!!
By: Mustafa Abdel Aziz Al-Batal
The general elections held in Ethiopia yesterday, Monday, June 1st, witnessed a widespread absence of key parts of the country from the electoral process. The entire Tigray region was excluded, as it was not allowed to participate in the elections!
Similarly, elections were not held in large areas of the Amhara and Oromia regions, which are among the largest and most politically and demographically significant regions in Ethiopia.
Despite this, the African Union, the European Union, and the United States, who appoint themselves as guardians and protectors of democracy in the world, saw no problem with this perplexing situation. We heard no word from them regarding the Ethiopian ethnic groups excluded from the electoral process, and no serious questions were raised about the credibility of these elections, despite the fact that vast areas of the country and entire ethnic groups remained excluded!
On the contrary, the results of these elections are expected to be accepted as a matter of course, and the monitoring missions from IGAD, the African Union, and Western entities are expected to issue reports that will lend them the necessary legitimacy and acceptance, granting the regime of Abiy Ahmed, supported by the West and the United Arab Emirates, the international recognition and the label of democratic governance it seeks.
Thus, it becomes clear that democracy in Ethiopia requires only the presence of observers; the presence or absence of voters makes no difference!
This is how democracy appears in the eyes of many international powers: a principle applied rigorously when it serves their interests, and overlooked when its results conflict with those interests. What happened in Ethiopia serves as a reminder once again that legitimacy in international politics is not always granted according to democratic principles, but rather according to the balance of power and self-interest!
From the Editor:
The above article is a translation of an opinion written by
Mustafa Abdel Aziz Al-Batal