By Yemane Nagish

The Ethiopian Federal Democratic Unity Forum (Forum) on Thursday said that it does not accept the neutrality of the African Union and European Union Election Observers.

"We know how the AU and EU observed previous elections in Ethiopia. This time, too, we will not expect any impartial observation from them," said Beyene Petros, chairman of Forum.

Beyene added that his party had no idea as to what exactly the election observers were doing in Ethiopia and that the observers have not made any attempts to talk to any of his party members.

Asked to comment on the issue, Agnes Doka, Press Officer for the European Union Election Observation Mission (EOM), refrained from directly responding to the accusations of Forum. However, she said that the EOM was independently and professionally conducting its responsibility and trying to meet with all the stakeholders of the election process.

 “We are trying to communicate with and inform the media about our activities as well as trying to meet the local electoral officers, candidates, party representatives, civil society organizations and voters,” she said.

She also informed The Reporter that 90 long term observers of the mission comprised from 25 countries will arrive in Addis Ababa today. “These observers are the most experienced part of the mission who have gone on several observation missions before.”
It was learnt that these long term observers will stay in Addis for three days for briefing and will then be deployed to their designated areas throughout the country.

The short term observers of the mission, 60 in number, will arrive in Addis approximately a week before the May 23 elections.