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An
IGAD Ministerial Mission in Khartoum and Juba
A high
level IGAD Ministerial Mission, led by Ethiopia’s Foreign
Minister Seyoum Mesfin, accompanied by Kenya’s Foreign Minister,
Moses Watangula, IGAD Executive Secretary, Engineer Mahboub
Maalim and other officials from Ethiopia and Kenya as well as
IGAD’s Assessment and Evaluation Commission, visited Khartoum
and Juba on the 3rd and 4th of March. The delegation met and
held extensive discussions with President Omar Ahmed Hassan
Al-Bashir and Sudan’s Foreign Minister, Dr. Deng Alor, on Wednesday
in Khartoum; and on Thursday in Juba had talks with President
Salva Kiir of South Sudan, first vice president of the Sudan.
The delegation's visit was arranged following the decisions
of the 33rd ordinary IGAD Ministerial Council meeting in Djibouti
last December, and of the 34th Extra-ordinary Council held on
the sidelines of the AU Summit in January.
In
discussions with Sudan’s Foreign Minister, the delegation noted
that as IGAD had started the process of the Comprehensive Peace
Agreement (CPA) in Kenya 5 years ago, and could be considered
an initiator of the principles underlying the CPA, it needed
to consult with the leaders of the signatory parties. Sudan
is at a critical juncture in its history, and the delegation
emphasized the interest of IGAD member states to be engaged
at the highest level. Kenyan President, Muwai Kibaki, has called
for an Extra-ordinary IGAD Summit, to be dedicated to evaluation
of the implementation of the CPA, at the beginning of next week.
Implementation of the CPA involves a series of benchmarks, and
these need serious follow up and full support.
Minister
Deng Alor made it clear Sudan appreciated this timely visit
when it was facing a critical, complex and challenging situation.
The CPA had passed through a number of difficult phases, and
had now reached the final stage. The issues remaining were few,
but critical and since the remaining time for implementation
was so short, the two parties had agreed to limit the issues
selectively. There had been times, Minister Deng said, when
the signatories had found it difficult to move forward as they
had not even been talking to each other. Recently, however,
the parties had broken the ice again and had managed to look
at some significant issues once more, including the representation
of the South in the National Assembly; the demarcation of the
border between the north and the south, as well as borders shared
with other nations from Ethiopia down to the Central African
Republic; and the Referendum Commission of South Sudan.
Implementation
of the CPA remains challenging, and the signatories must be
committed to resolution through dialogue and negotiation. The
process is bound to remain uneven and difficult. The most important
point is the parties must not withdraw however difficult the
process. The CPA brought an end to a protracted, decades-long,
war in a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural state. However, the
two parties have not been able to create the necessary levels
of trust to carry out all the provisions of the agreement as
effectively as hoped. This trust needs to be rebuilt. The two
parties are now on the right track. No matter what the end result,
the parties will be held accountable to keep their commitments.
It is a test of leadership. The parties still need to redouble
their efforts and enhance their political will as well as demonstrate
their commitment to take the process to its logical conclusion.
IGAD must exert all necessary efforts to assist the parties
to move forward. The process is part and parcel of the peace
and stability of the whole region. The international community
also needs to assist in the efforts of the two parties in a
concerted manner.
The
IGAD delegation also held candid and informative discussions
with both leaders. These discussions will continue, and lead
up to the planned IGAD Summit in Nairobi to be dedicated to
implementation of the CPA.
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Minister
Seyoum inaugurates Ethiopia’s new diplomatic premises in
Khartoum.
Foreign
Minister Seyoum officially inaugurated Ethiopia’s new diplomatic
premises, the chancery and ambassador’s residence, in Khartoum
on Wednesday. The ceremony was attended by Mr. Deng Alor,
Foreign Minister of the Republic of the Sudan, Mr. Moses
Watangula, Foreign Minister of Kenya, senior Sudanese government
officials, Ambassadors and other invited dignitaries. The new
premises should be considered as a sign that a bright future
lies ahead in Sudanese/Ethiopian relations, underlining their
deep rooted bilateral links. Ethiopia and Sudan currently enjoy
mutually beneficial cooperation in important areas of common
interest, covering political, security, economic, social and
cultural issues. Strategic co-operation in the field of
infrastructural development, with on-going projects in
fiber-optics and in power grid connections, are one example of
mutual benefit. Other recent examples of close co-operation can
be seen in the growing increase in cross-border movement of
goods and services following the completion of the Matama-Gonder
corridor and the simplification of procedures on the transit
routes. The construction of the new diplomatic premises will
symbolize and express Ethiopia’s commitment to further
revitalization of the longstanding ties between the Sudan and
Ethiopia.
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The UN
Monitoring Group report goes to the Sanctions Committee
The UN
Monitoring Group has this week submitted its latest draft report
on Somalia to the UN Sanctions Committee. The report will be
considered by the Committee on Wednesday next week, to discuss
its recommendations and the formal presentation to the UN
Security Council. The report is expected to include detail of
activities that have affected the TFG, AMISOM and the peace
process, including attacks on the TFG, Eritrea’s support for
extremists in Somalia, and their Diaspora support network as
well as the activities of armed criminal groups that threaten
Somalia’s peace and security. It is also likely to look at the
substantive violations of the arms embargo, as well as support
for the TFG, which previous reports have classified as technical
violations of the embargo. For example, earlier reports
identified Ethiopia’s response to the TFG’s request for aid in
December 2006 as a technical infringement. With the continued
threat posed by Al-Shabaab, Ethiopia of course still has troops
stationed along its border with Somalia, and has continued to
provide training for TFG security forces and for civil servants
as have a number of other neighbors and international partners
of the Somali Government.
It was on
December 23rd last year that the Security Council
adopted SC Resolution 1907 (2009) imposing sanctions against
Eritrea for providing military and other assistance to Al-Shabaab,
Hizbul Islam and other armed extremists and insurgents in
Somalia and for its continued refusal to admit its invasion of
Djibouti and its failure to respond to previous Security Council
demands to withdraw from Djibouti territory. Indeed, despite the
imposition of sanctions, and despite the detailed evidence on
the ground from Djibouti, Eritrea still continues to try to deny
its occupation of Djibouti territory and its attacks on
Djibouti. Last week, the Eritrean Government organized
demonstrations in a number of European and American cities to
protest the sanctions. Now it is apparently seeking help from
Nigeria which took up its seat in the Security Council in
January. Eritrea’s ambassador to Nigeria. Mohamed Ali Omaro,
said yesterday that Eritrea wanted Nigeria to play the role of
an “uninfluenced arbiter” in what he called the “gang-up against
another progressive African country by certain powers”, adding
that Eritrea believed this was the time to say “no to
neo-colonialism”. Eritrea, the ambassador added, had always
supported Nigeria in elections in international organizations;
so naturally, when it felt victimized “we cry to the big
brother.” This attempt to flatter Nigeria ignores the fact that
Nigeria is a responsible country fully aware of its obligations
to the unanimous decisions of the AU and to the Security
Council’s resolutions.
The Security
Council sanctions were also, of course, imposed on the basis of
detailed and credible information about Eritrea’s active support
for Al-Shabaab and other extremist groups, politically,
diplomatically and financially and through military assistance,
direct and indirect, as detailed in earlier Monitoring Group
reports. The Chairman of Hizbul Islam, for example, was resident
in Asmara for over two years before being flown down to Somalia
with two plane loads of arms in an attempt, in collaboration
with Al-Shabaab, to drive the TFG out of Mogadishu in May last
year.
Equally
implausibly, Eritrea has also continued to deny support to Al-Shabaab
and anti-TFG extremists. In the last few weeks, the Somali
Government has made clear that there has been no overall
reduction in Eritrean backing for anti-TFG extremists, and there
have been no indications that the Eritrean Government has scaled
back its direct military support to Al-Shabaab since the
imposition of sanctions. Indeed, it seems to have increased its
direct assistance including financial support. Last week, the AU
Peace and Security Council, at its 217th meeting,
felt it necessary to renew its call to the UN Security Council
to act speedily on its earlier call for the imposition of a
no-fly zone and the blockade of sea ports to prevent the entry
of foreign elements into Somalia and the supply of logistical
and other support to the extremist opponents of Somalia’s TFG.
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Continuing
bilateral consultations between Ethiopia and the United States
A delegation
led by US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African
Affairs, Mr. Karl Wycoff, held a bilateral consultative meeting
with an Ethiopian delegation led by State Minister for Foreign
Affairs, Dr. Tekeda Alemu, in Addis Ababa on Thursday, March 4.
The US delegation included officials from the State Department,
USAID, and the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa, while officials from
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Finance and
Economic Development, the Ministry of Trade and Industry, and
the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development represented
Ethiopia. This bilateral inter-agency consultation meeting,
focusing on a wide range of areas of common interest, was a
follow-up to the earlier bilateral dialogue in Washington, in
November last year. The delegation at that meeting was led by
Foreign Minister Seyoum who held extensive discussions with
various high level U.S. Government officials, including U.S
Secretary of State, Mrs. Hillary Clinton.
In their
opening statements, the heads of the two delegations emphasized
the importance of having such dialogue on a regular basis to
help strengthen further the existing partnership between the two
countries. Dr. Tekeda noted that the consultation mechanism was
a turning point in the century-old diplomatic relationship
between the two countries. The timing of this broad-based
consultation, he added, was most opportune as the current
bilateral development cooperation program between the two
countries comes to an end in September. Elements for new
programs are currently being considered; Ethiopia is also
formulating its next five year PASDEP.
The two sides
discussed economic cooperation, governance and food security as
well as regional issues. They noted the value of a more
comprehensive engagement in economic co-operation. In this
regard, the U.S. side appreciated Ethiopia’s signing of the
compact on the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development
Program (CADEP) which the U.S. plans to support at the
continental level. The Ethiopian side welcomed the US interest
in deepening economic engagement with Ethiopia and agreed that
strengthening economic cooperation should be given top priority.
It noted that, although trade between the two countries had
shown encouraging growth rates, in terms of the overall volume,
it still leaves a lot to be desired.
On issues
related to governance, the two sides had an extensive and frank
exchange of views on human rights and the overall
democratization process in the country. There were differences
on these issues with the US side expressing its usual concerns
while the Ethiopian delegation underlined the necessity for the
US to avoid taking unfounded allegations seriously. This has
essentially been the character of previous US State Department
reports on human rights in Ethiopia. The Ethiopian side
expressed the hope that future reports would be based on facts
rather than on unverified claims. In this context the Ethiopian
delegations also provided a full briefing on the preparations
being undertaken to make the upcoming election free, fair and
peaceful as well as credible in the eyes of the Ethiopian
electorate.
The two sides
also discussed regional issues, with particular focus on Somalia
and on the peace process in Sudan. Both agreed that the
Transitional Federal Government (TFG) should be supported and
that the international community should provide real and
tangible assistance and in a timely manner. The meeting was
conducted in a spirit of mutual understanding. Both sides
expressed their desire to continue to build on a tradition of
candid and open discussions and the need to continue such
consultative meetings on a regular basis. During the US
delegation visit, the US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for
African Affairs, also held discussions with Prime Minister Meles
on the current crisis in Somalia, on Darfur and other issues of
common interest, including Ethiopian-US co-operation. Prime
Minister Meles reaffirmed Ethiopia’s continuing efforts to
ensure peace and stability in Somalia and in Darfur, and
underlined Ethiopia’s efforts to ensure the May elections would
be free and fair.
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A European
Business Mission in Ethiopia
A trade and
investment mission organized by the Eastern African Association (EAA)
made a four day visit to Ethiopia last week. The East African
Association is a UK based organization but its activities include
companies from other European countries. While a majority of the
48 members of the mission were representatives of British
companies, there were ten from Germany, two from Switzerland, two
from Greece and even one from the United States. The group was
welcomed at the Intercontinental Hotel by Ato Tadesse Haile, the
State Minister for Trade and Industry who encouraged them to
invest in Ethiopia. He singled out Pittard’s, a British leather
company which has recently bought the largest leather processing
company in Ethiopia, as an example, and called on other British
businesses to follow this example. Presentations were also made by
Ato Abi Woldemeskel, Director General of the Ethiopian Investment
Agency, and representatives of the Ministry of Mines and Energy as
well as the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
Meetings were organized for the members of the mission with their
Ethiopian counterparts to provide opportunities for networking as
well as a series of private meetings with government officials and
officials from private and state-owned companies. Visits were also
arranged to the Addis Chamber International Trade Fair in Addis
Ababa and to a flower farm. The mission, which was organized by
the Eastern African Association in collaboration with the British
Embassy in Addis Ababa, and the Ethiopian Embassy in the UK, with
the assistance of the Addis Ababa and Ethiopian Chambers of
Commerce, also included a meeting with Prime Minister Meles
Zenawi.
The Prime
Minister thanked the members of the mission for their interest in
Ethiopia and expressed his hope that it would be successful in
attracting investment and business opportunities. He gave
participants an overview of the policies the government has been
pursuing to achieve rapid and sustainable economic development.
The main basis of growth remained agriculture and this, he said,
was going to be the case for some time to come. The government was
making sure that an adequate supply of suitable land was available
for development, identifying large and vacant swathes of land and
incorporating them into what he called a land bank. The result was
that countries like Saudi Arabia were showing serious interest to
invest in agriculture in Ethiopia. It indicated that over the next
few years significant growth would be achieved in large-scale
farming as well as small-scale farming. He suggested that
fertilizer production was a promising venture of import
substitution that might be attractive to foreign investors. The
Prime Minister told his audience that government policy favored
the development of labor intensive sectors, including leather and
textiles, because the availability of inexpensive labor gave the
country a better chance of competing in international markets.
Ethiopia, he said, benefited from various tax-free and quota-free
facilities including AGOA, EBA and other bilateral forms of
preferential market access arrangements. Exports in general had
been growing at a rate of more than 20%.
The Prime
Minster noted that the government was working hard to expand
telecommunications services, including broadband internet access,
across the country. He predicted that over the coming year land
line and mobile telecommunication services will see exponential
growth in Ethiopia. He also revealed that Indian professionals are
preparing to establish an information technology (IT) park in
Ethiopia. He touched upon the government’s intention to build a
rail network covering some 5000 Kilometers to facilitate
transportation of commodities from one part of the country to
another, as well as to the ports that Ethiopia uses. He emphasized
the government’s commitment to the production of green energy, and
suggested that, with its ongoing growth in hydropower generation
capacity, Ethiopia should be able to produce electricity at a
price of 2-3 cents per kilowatt. At the conclusion of his opening
statement, Prime Minister Meles encouraged the participants to
invest in Ethiopia.
Responding to
questions, the Prime Minister said that the elections in May would
be markedly different from those in 2005. The electoral Code of
Conduct, signed by 65 political parties, was a major step to
ensure the elections were peaceful, free and democratic. The
Government, he said, would not be caught unaware by violence this
time round; a well-trained police force would be deployed to
ensure law and order during the election process. In answer to
questions from banking and insurance company representatives, the
Prime Minister said privatization of the financial sector was not
under consideration at this stage but foreign participation in the
re-insurance business was welcome. The government would, however,
continue efforts to build up the capacity of local companies in
the financial sector so they would be able to compete with
international companies. He cited the involvement of the Royal
Bank of Scotland a few years earlier to upgrade technology and
service delivery standards.
The Prime
Minister said the expansion of telecoms services was in line with
the country’s rural development strategy, and the intent was to
expand all types of telecommunications services including
landline, mobile and broadband internet access, across the
country. This required a huge investment. Private operators,
unfortunately, were only interested in the expansion of mobile
services. On health care, the Prime Minister said the government’s
priority was promotion of primary health care as most diseases
could be prevented by providing services at that level.
Intra-African trade, he said, was a high-priority matter for
Ethiopia especially with regard to neighboring countries as a
division of labor based on their comparative advantages would
benefit all the states in the region. Ethiopia’s commitment to
intra-African trade was demonstrated by the infrastructural
projects currently under way which would link Ethiopia and its
neighbors. These were taking into account the need to link
production and distribution centers with urban centers and ports;
the demands of Ethiopia’s growing economy were a major factor in
planning and executing infrastructural developments.
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Nile Basin
Initiative (NBI) meetings deliberate on establishing the Nile
River Basin Commission
Two workshops
were held last week in Kampala. A workshop on Institutional
Design Study took place on February 24th and it was
followed the next day by a workshop on Institutional
Arrangements. The first meeting was attended by Nile Basin
Initiative (NBI) Technical Advisory Committee (Nile-TAC), the
NBI Secretariat and by development partners. The second workshop
expanded the participants to include the Negotiation Committee
members. The discussions in the first workshop focused on the
Inception Report prepared by the consultant on the Institutional
Design Study, one of the components of the Institutional
Strengthening Program (ISP) of the NBI. This program was
approved by the Nile Council of Ministers for Waters Resources
to help the NBI transform itself into a permanent river basin
organization. The Institutional Design Study included an
analysis of the institutional strength of the NBI, the
integration and harmonization of policies and procedures, the
need to strengthen coordination and linkages with other regional
institutions, and the need to prepare the members of the NBI for
the outcome of the negotiations on the Cooperative Framework
Agreement (CFA). The Cooperative Framework Agreement lays the
legal foundation and the institutional framework for the
establishment of the Nile River Basin Commission to replace the
NBI, the transitional institutional arrangement.
The first
phase of the Institutional Design Study will take14 months. It
will help identify the strengths and weaknesses that have been
associated with the NBI and the future needs of a permanent
institution. The second phase will take around 6 months and will
set the stage for robust engagement by stakeholders and decision
makers to be followed by a formal endorsement. During the
discussion it was emphasized that examples of similar
organizations will be used as design models, providing possible
different options with costs and sustainability strategies.
During the workshop, the critical importance of underlining
equitable and reasonable utilization was emphasized as the
central and defining element for cooperation on the Nile River.
The need to build on the achievements of the NBI was stressed as
was the necessity of enhancing ownership by the river basin
countries. They will have to assume more responsibility for
financing while keeping alive the possibility of obtaining more
resources from partners creatively. Another important aspect
stressed by the meeting was that the principle of subsidiarity
must be enhanced through the study. A more detailed discussion
will be held with the consultant when the complete inception
report is submitted shortly.
The second
day was allotted for discussion on the transitional arrangements
to progress from the NBI to the Nile River Basin Commission. The
consultant proposed some initial ideas to be included in the
report for the transitional arrangements to help prepare the
ground for an orderly transfer of the assets and liabilities of
the NBI to the permanent body. These included a number of
different scenarios according to whether all countries ratified
the transfer or merely the requisite number of countries. This
study is being conducted according to the decision of the 17th
Nile Council of Ministers meeting held in Alexandria last July.
The report of the study will be part of the elements for
consideration by the next Nile Council of Ministers
Extraordinary Meeting. This was originally scheduled to be held
in Egypt last month, but will now take place in mid-April, in
Egypt. The meeting will deliberate on the report of the Joint
Meetings of Nile Technical Advisory Committee and Negotiation
Committee on the modalities for the signing of the Cooperative
Framework Agreement. It will also consider how the transition
from the transitional NBI to the permanent Nile River Basin
Commission will be achieved while also building on the
achievements of the Nile Basin Initiative.
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Ensuring
the integrity of the upcoming elections: the dangers of the
politics of ‘incessant allegation’
The momentum
of the elections is steadily building up. Political parties are
fiercely engaged in televised debates, publishing their
political agendas and elections manifestoes in the country’s
various newspapers. They are doing all this according to the
standards and criteria they have agreed to among themselves.
This has included allocation of time slots for the debates. Even
though some complaints on the fairness of the allocations have
been raised in the debates themselves, both political parties
and media organizations have been implementing their agreement
to the letter. It has all been most encouraging.
One issue,
however, still appears to require further consideration, and
possible rectification or moderation. This is the concept of the
politics of allegation, which has become almost ceaseless.
Indeed, some of the opposition groups have for a long time
adopted the idea of making allegations almost as a political
platform in itself. They appear to consider that allegations
against the Government can be seen as an end in itself, even as
an acceptable political tool. That is hardly the case.
The electoral
Code of Conduct for Political Parties Proclamation No. 662/2009
was aimed, among other things, to provide for procedures and a
mechanism to investigate and rectify the grievances of any
political party in the electoral process at all levels, through
a Joint Council of Political Parties. Political parties now have
the choice of presenting their grievances either to this
complaint-handling and dispute-resolution system under the
electoral Code of Conduct for Political Parties or turning to
election officials and the courts according to the Electoral Law
of Ethiopia Amendment Proclamation No.532/2007. Under the
Electoral Law the National Electoral Board has the
responsibility to investigate or cancel election results, order
a re-election or bring perpetrators of an offence before a court
of law if it has received information about violations of the
election process, or other offences. It can give administrative
decisions over disputes that occur in the election process,
rectify electoral irregularities and decide on complaints
submitted to it. The Proclamation also defines other mechanisms
to resolve disputes including grievance hearing committees in
each constituency and a system of complaints and disputes
arising from the electoral process and allowing appeal to the
courts. These due processes of law have been fully detailed and
entrenched through a variety of mechanisms and directives.
Some
opposition parties use this system as required and present their
cases in an appropriate fashion. Others, however, have
intensified the pattern of their allegations against the
Government, other parties and the entire electoral process. As
we have emphasized before, ensuring that the upcoming elections
are credible, peaceful, free and fair requires that all parties
discharge their respective duties properly. Government bodies
have to continue to deliver impartial and objective service to
all those involved in the electoral process. Equally, opposition
parties have the responsibility to respect the constitutional
organs of the country and ensure that their members and
followers fully respect these. It has to be said that this heavy
responsibility does not always appear to be fully appreciated by
some opposition parties. They appear bent on creating doubts and
confusion in the process by their continuous litany of
unsubstantiated, even fabricated, allegations against the
Government and the political process.
Disappointingly, some third parties have even directly
contributed to this dispiriting habit of opposition groups by
giving them false hope and encouragement. In some cases this is
done in full knowledge of the intent of the allegations. Others
are perhaps gullible observers aiming to contribute to the
democratic process. It would not be fair to question their
intentions but they do bear some responsibility if they
encourage the repetition of fallacious allegations without
corroboration. They become complicit in the efforts of those who
make no secret of the fact that they are bent on undermining
Ethiopia’s process of democratization. One example of this was
the investigations of irregularities alleged by one of the
opposition parties. The recent announcement by the National
Electoral Board and the Joint Council, on which the ruling party
and the opposition party with the complaint were represented,
clearly demonstrated that most of the allegations were
unsubstantiated and, indeed, mere inventions. This sort of
allegation, deliberate perversion of fact, is simply
irresponsible. The attempt to use the recent, and regretted,
death of an opposition candidate, apparently in a bar brawl, as
an example of deliberate intimidation efforts, is similarly
misguided and injudicious.
Unfounded
allegations by different actors are not new to Ethiopia. One
can, no doubt, expect more such distortions to be produced.
This, after all, has been the modus operandi of some groups:
publishing reports compiling or listing allegations with an
accompaniment of a carefully worded disclaimer that the
allegations, or any Government response, cannot be independently
confirmed. Even without this the allegations are produced and
widely circulated as if they contain incontrovertible facts, and
the qualifications are ignored or minimized. It is even a common
technique to publish the allegations that a journalist knows to
be wrong, and then add a denial, a method which allows the
allegation to be repeated. Even the most prestigious of media
organizations frequently use this approach, as the BBC
demonstrated this week in raking up unfounded, and un-provable,
allegations over 25 years old. Such an approach to reporting
seems to have convinced some opposition groups that whatever
they say about the government will get published by someone
somewhere, at least as a claim.
Their
objective is depressingly short-sighted. They are engaged in
this nihilistic strategy despite the possibly far-reaching
repercussions on the prospects for the long-term democratization
process in the country. We should all be aware that this process
requires building up confidence in our democratic institutions,
and this can be achieved only with active involvement of the
opposition parties. Whether reliance on this sort of allegation
to produce support from other parties even in the short-term is
plausible or not, it is likely to have a corrosive effect on
confidence-building efforts among the political parties.
Unsubstantiated allegations may briefly attract the attention of
some naïve and unsuspecting elements, among politicians or among
the media as well as observers. In the long run, however, they
eventually expose the perpetrators as people attempting to
discredit the whole election process in case they lose the
election.
By any
standards, this is an entirely negative approach. It is high
time for any such trend to be reversed and replaced by a proper
utilization of existing procedures. It is only by using the
legal system to its fullest extent that institutional
capacity-building is assured. The politics of ‘incessant
allegation’ must be replaced by the sort of mature and informed
debate on policy options that all the parties should be capable
of, to allow for a full choice to be available for the
electorate. All relevant actors, including any third parties,
have important roles in ensuring the integrity of the electoral
process and of the election itself. Cutting out the cancer of
incessant and baseless allegation as a political tool is surely
one of the more important pre-requisites for a success.
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