Go get your card, and for your rights!

(Ewnetu Bilata Debela)

The peoples of Ethiopia are building a democratic system overthrowing the ages old oppressive and anti democratic regimes through painstaking struggle. The quest for democracy encompasses various issues surrounding the basic rights of citizens. It is a matter of recognizing both the group and individual rights of citizens without limits. Citizens have rights that should be respected only for the mere fact that they are human beings.

In this regard the past regimes had turned the country in to prison by subjugating their basic civil rights. This had forced citizens to resort to armed struggle to secure the respect of their rights.

The anti democratic reigns of the past were precipitated by failure of the past rulers to recognize the group and individual rights of these people, to accommodate their ethnic and religious diversity as well as their attempts to subdue the requests by force and persecution.

This has demanded prioritization of complete democratization as it has been boiling as a hit agenda of the public for years. It was also the only choice as a first step for launching a new political system that replaces a tyrant regime, like Durgue. Accordingly basic democratic rights have been given due importance ever since the implementation of the transitional period charter. Subsequently the FDRE constitution has been ratified to guarantee all the human and democratic rights of the people maintaining their synergy and integrity. The constitution was ratified after close to 16 million people deliberated on its provisions and finally gave their consent through their constituents.

This constitutional democratic system has responded to two major rights that are particularly appealing to our people’s objective reality. These rights are ensuring the equality rights of nations, nationalities and peoples of Ethiopia as well as building democratic system through the direct participation of people. It is clearly understandable that our course of building democratic system bases itself on adapting internationally acknowledged principles of democracy with our specific needs.

This makes our democracy an indigenous one that flourished through capitalizing our objective needs on the internationally acknowledged democratic principles. This feature makes it clear that our democracy is not a system that is forcibly imposed against us by external forces or copied from others for the sake of formality. It is rather a system that originated from the years old struggle of our people and suitable to the objective reality of our country.

The constitution has also incorporated all basic and detail provisions of the United Nations Charter regarding citizen’s rights and given legal guarantee. Unlike the western style of democracy that has been narrowing the rights of citizens in relation to gender or property entitlement, ours is one that sprouted as a fully fledged system from its inception.

The constitution provides that political power can be assumed only through popular vote. It has also allowed the establishment of political parties and competing for political power. This makes the country a nation where peoples ownership of power is ensured and a democratic state where multiparty system is realized.

Article 8 of the FDRE constitution has also clearly stipulated that political power is a manifestation of people’s sovereignty which is expressed through their own direct participation or that of their constituents. This would be possible through realizing a democratic system where people’s human and democratic rights are guaranteed. The rights of people to elect and be elected are enshrined in article 38 of FDRE constitution. This provision further elaborates that any Ethiopian citizen has a right to elect and be elected without any discrimination in terms of color, race, nation, nationality, sex, religion, political or any other affiliation while presupposing that elections held at any government level should be universal, based on equality opportunity and assuring privacy of voters.

Ever since ratification of the 1994 FDRE constitution which bestowed supreme power for the Nations, Nationalities and Peoples of Ethiopia , four national general elections have been held in the country. The past four terms of election have ensured the democratic participation of the public practically.

To ensure continuity of this culture preparations have been well finalized to successfully conduct the upcoming election. This round of general election is expected to ascend our journey of building constitutional democratic system in to a new height. At this moment registration of voters has been kicked off. In all the elections conducted in the past, the number of people who actually casted their votes out of the registered ones is more than 90 percent. This indicates that the people view election as a means of exercising their democratic rights.

Since our democracy is based on the strong foundation the upcoming general election is expected to take place peacefully, democratically, legally and with the utmost trust of the public.

Any adverse acts from any side are deemed to be harmful as election is a process through which the autonomy of the public is manifested. Hence such acts need to be rectified as quickly as possible.

We, therefore, call up on the people of the country to come out as usual, go to their respective polling stations and claim their polling cards as it is the first and very important step towards accomplishing the election successfully.

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*The author, Ewnetu Bilata Debela, is a State Minister of Government Communication Affairs’ Office, and one of the few Ministers active on facebook.