By Daniel BeyeneThe Pre-election phase of the 5th general elections is said to be encouraging in fulfilling the standards of holding free, fair, democratic and credible election, while some contesting political parties questioned this general overview of the ongoing pre-election process. This was noted yesterday in a panel of scholars and stakeholders that was organized to discuss the activities conducted so far related to the forthcoming general elections.

Opening the panel the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) Chairperson Professor Merga Bekana noted that the Board has been exerting relentless efforts in providing capacity building trainings to politicians, election observers, voters, returning officers, judiciary and law enforcement bodies during the last five years.

“Election materials are now being distributed to all polling stations in the country with the logistic support of the Ministry of Defense and other partners. The overall preparations of this year’s general election are done in an extraordinary and successful manner in comparison with the past four consecutive general elections ,” he added.

Regarding to the impartiality of the Board, Professor Merga underscored that the Board has been serving all contesting parties and the incumbent equally, and the lodged election complaints by various contesting political parties have been resolved in a legal and constitutional manner.

During the panel, Addis Ababa University Assistant Professor of School of Journalism Dr. Negeri Lencho presented an observation entitled; ‘Media coverage of Pre-election of the May 2015 Ethiopian Election (Campaign and Debate in Focus).

In his presentation, Dr. Negeri pointed out that overgeneralization, lack of clarity, wearing false mask, disinformation, among others, were witnessed during the election campaigns apart from not using effectively the allotted time for the debate.

“For instance, when the ruling party talks about its political programmes and achievements as well as on how to multiply the achievements in the next term, the other contesting parties are not seen taking the occasion to present their alternative policies using their time properly,” he reiterated.

Pertaining to media coverage of pre-election of May 2015, Dr. Negeri said that the public and private media have played their role relatively well in setting agenda, informing the public, and being professional and educational.

It was learnt that out of 1,185 activities related to the election campaign, 1,165 were aired and printed out to the general public. The remaining 20 were banned due to their violent nature. The incumbent has used 98 per cent of the allotted free airtime and newspaper space while other contesting political parties have only used 51 per cent.

The panel was jointly organized by the Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation, the Ethiopian Broadcasting Authority and the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia. Over 36 million voters have been registered to cast their vote and 58 political parties are contesting in the forthcoming May 24 election.