It is to be recalled that Medrek party, the coalition of 6 parties, lodged an appeal in the Supreme Court in relation to the May 23/2010 election.
Previously, on June 1/2010, Medrek submitted a complaint to the National Election Board of Ethiopia(NEBE) alleging wide-scale flaws in polling and vote counting thus demanding the cancellation of the election result and a complete re-run. However, the 9-member Board, chaired by Prof. Merga Bekana, rejected the complaint on procedural grounds. In its decision, dated June 4/2010, the Board reasoned, citing the Amended Electoral Law(532/2007), since it is in effect an appeal hearing organ, complaints should first be submitted to the respective Complaint Hearing Committee, at polling station or constituency level, within 48 hours of the occurrence of the cause for the complaint, which Medrek did not. Thus, the Board decided that there is no legal ground to entertain Medrek complaints. Consequently, the Board concluded unanimously that there is no factual or legal ground to cancel the election result or conduct a re-rerun.
Unsatisfied with the Board’s decision Medrek brought the mater to the Supreme Court. In its appeal lodged on June 14/2010, Medrek requested the Court to reverse the decision of the Board and order the latter to conduct an investigation on all its complaints, including its request for re-run. However, the Supreme Court upheld the Board’s decision on its ruling on June 18/2010.
The following text is the June 18/2010 ruling of the Supreme Court – or download (PDF) – HERE.
[Though the first two pages are blurry, it gets better afterwards]
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