Refraining from a costly political gamble

Op-Ed

Following the announcement of provisional results for the national and regional elections held a fortnight ago, various opposition parties have revealed their take on the result and the election process.

They attributed their defeat to a host of reasons ranging from the harassment, intimidation, jailing and even killing of their members to expulsion of their election observers from polling stations to ballot box stuffing and the like.

We do not wish to dwell on all these allegations. However, one should be singled out because it is completely off the mark and could have damaging consequences for the opposition. What we are speaking of is blaming the public for one's defeat in the elections.

Claims that the electorate were paid off to vote for the ruling Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) and came out in droves for its rallies, that the public is weak in terms of financing opposition parties, that voters were intimidated by rumours that the EPRDF will know who they voted for through a surveillance camera etc have been rife since the elections.

Blaming the public, we believe, is utterly wrong.

More than ninety percent of the thirty-two million people registered to vote turned up on election day and cast their ballots. If there is any truth to the claim that the EPRDF bought the votes of the electorate, does it not mean that it bribed some thirty million people to vote for it? Does it not imply that people cannot decide by themselves which party to vote for unless they are bought off?

As entities which have set out to rule the public and vie for its vote, political parties should educate it if they deem it lacks experience in and knowledge of politics rather than hold it responsible for their loss.

In the 2005 elections the residents of Addis Ababa handed the former Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) a clean sweep of all parliamentary and city council seats. Opposition parties then said that the residents "punished" the EPRDF. That indeed was true, so, how come an electorate that was lauded for displaying wisdom when they elected all opposition candidates are now be charged with offering their votes for money when they do the same thing for EPRDF candidates?

Opposition parties were able to raise a significant amount of money from Ethiopians both at home and in the Diaspora in the 2005 elections. Why couldn't this be achieved this time round? Rather than criticizing the public for lacking experience in the possibility that it declined to finance them because it did not believe in them be entertained? And is it the parties or the public which should be criticized for inexperience and weakness for the parties' inability to secure financial contributions from the public?

Let alone undertake a long-term and dedicated fund-raising campaign, opposition parties have done practically nothing to sensitize and reach the public a part from participating in the few debates on the election over the media. Did they have to blame the public for being "weak" to cover up their own shortcomings to sensitize it?

The people of Ethiopia are poor, some three-quarters of them are uneducated. It is the responsibility of political parties to sensitize and organize them, to make them politically active, to enable them to identify what is in their interest and what is not.

Hence, it is ironical and indeed quite disappointing for opposition parties to shift the blame unto the public and accuse it of selling its vote and not funding them.

There is a very important reason why we are concerned by how political parties handle the public.

Elections are an important means of expressing the sovereignty and will of the people. The right to vote and to be elected is a vital human right. Elections are not one-off affairs; they are a continuous exercise. Parties which win one election can lose another; they are not destined to stay in office forever. The nature of the activities of political parties to hang on to power or to oust the incumbent - and of the playing field - is determined by the public.

As the driving force behind the actions of political parties is the public, handling the public properly is a critical "investment" for them. Blaming the public is a wrong investment; it's a dangerous gamble.

That is why opposition parties must not invest wrongly in the public and pay the price for it.

At a time when the EPRDF has wised up and is saying that the public is its "master and employer", opposition parties are exposing themselves to further public censure by accusing it of selling its vote for money. Such disrespect for the public is bound to cost them their popular base and as such should be eschewed.

The art of politics begins with according due respect to and making a political investment in the public.

The strategy pursued by some opposition parties, however, is a bankrupting political investment and an unnecessary gamble.

Opposition parties should think through the consequences before blaming the public for their dismal showing. Otherwise, they will be making a bad political investment that will cost them dearly.

This Op-Ed is published with permission from The Reporter.Kilil5 invites academics and other professionals to participitate our editorials with Op-Ed pieces of opinion.