By T, Staffer of De Birhan Media
12 October 2012
There
are around 100 political parties registered with the National Electoral Board
of Ethiopia. These are the “legally operating” parties in the regime’s lingo. Over
90% of these parties call themselves opposition parties, fronts and coalitions.
In addition to watchdogging the Ethiopian regime, it is also our mandate to
appraise the function, activities and achievements of these registered
political parties. There is a growing view that establishing a political party
is becoming more of an entrepreneurial business venture than a genuine cause
and movement for a real political change, being reminiscent that some were concocted
by the regime itself as “opposition parties”. Most leaders of the opposition
political parties enjoy modest salary, receive funding from various sources,
gain various training, exchange and international opportunities and win
popularity and fame. Although the few genuine political parties receive all
these benefits but cannot evenly distribute them either due to large
membership, plans and programs; the “business oriented” and rapidly breeding
political parties smartly exploit these benefits and opportunities.
The
other issue that almost all these political parties are criticized for is the
fact that decorated with great visions, they cannot act at all. In addition to
this, they are lambasted for being “chauvinists”, “power mongers”, “un-evolving
and uninvolving” led by oldies politicians of the 60s, and huge lack of
creativity with no kind of visible political activity. This also involves the
inability of the political parties to understand the youth and engage them.
Especially, with regards to using the widely available and timely technological
tools and software, they fare bad. To concretize this, let’s do a short
analysis of the online presence of the “registered Ethiopian opposition
political parties”. Michael Cohn
writing on CompuKol.com, a
computer and internet company website defines online presence as “any existence of an individual or business that can be
found via an online search.” The National Electoral Board of
Ethiopia lists around 80 registered political parties in Ethiopia, we
purposively sampled 37 opposition political parties out of them based on the
variables of scope, name, age and number of members of the parties. Thus the
ones sampled here are those with better track record in those variables.
Name of the Political Party
|
Category - Type
|
Online Presence
|
Social Media Account/URL Name
|
Ethiopia Justice and
Democratic Forces Front(EJDFF)
|
Opposition-Front
|
No
|
No
|
Unity of Southern Ethiopia
Democratic Forces (USEDF)
|
Opposition-
Front
|
No
|
No
|
Ethiopia Federal Democratic Unity Forum (Forum)
|
Opposition-
Front
|
No
|
No
|
Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC)
|
Opposition-
Coalition
|
No
|
No
|
Oromo People’s Congress (ONC)
|
Opposition-
Party
|
Yes
|
No
Social Media Presence
|
All Ethiopian Unity Party (AEUP)
|
Opposition-Party
|
No
|
No
|
Western Somali Democratic Party (WSDP)
|
Opposition/Party
|
No
|
No
|
Oromo Liberation Unity Front (OLUF)
|
Opposition/Party
|
No
|
No
|
Ethiopian Peace and Democratic Party (EPDP)
|
Opposition/Party
|
No
|
No
|
Ethiopian National Democratic Party(ENDP)
|
Opposition/Party
|
No
|
No
|
Ethiopian Democratic Party (EDP)
|
Opposition/Party
|
Yes
|
|
Tigri Worgi Nationality Democratic Unity Party (TWNDUP)
|
Opposition/Party
|
No
|
No
|
Ethiopian's Unity Democratic Organization (EUDO)
|
Opposition/Party
|
No
|
No
|
Southern Ethiopia People's Democratic Union (SEPDU)
|
Opposition/Party
|
No
|
No
|
Yem Nationality Democratic Movement (YNDM)
|
Opposition/Party
|
No
|
No
|
Gurage People Democratic Front (GUPDF)
|
Opposition/Party
|
No
|
No
|
Sidama Liberation Movement (SLM)
|
Opposition/Party
|
No
|
No
|
Ethiopia Democratic Union (EDU)
|
Opposition/Party
|
No
|
No
|
All Ethiopian Democratic Party (AEDP)
|
Opposition/Party
|
No
|
No
|
Ethiopian Pan-Africanist Party (EPAP)
|
Opposition/Party
|
No
|
No
|
Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement (OFDM)
|
Opposition/Party
|
No
|
No
|
United Ethiopian Democratic Forces (UEDF)
|
Opposition/Party
|
No
|
No
|
Ethiopian National Unity Party (ENUP)
|
Opposition/Party
|
No
|
No
|
Unity of Southern Ethiopian Democratic Forces (USEDF)
|
Opposition/Party
|
No
|
No
|
All Ethiopian National Movement (AENM)
|
Opposition/Party
|
No
|
No
|
Ethiopian Democratic Unity Movement (EDUM)
|
Opposition/Party
|
No
|
No
|
Oromo National Congress (OPC)
|
Opposition/Party
|
No
|
No
|
Union of Tigrians for Democracy and Sovereignty (UTDS)
|
Opposition/Party
|
No
|
No
|
Birhan For Unity and Democracy Party (BUDP)
|
Opposition/Party
|
No
|
No
|
Ethiopian Addis Meraf Party (EAMP)
|
Opposition/Party
|
Yes
|
No
presence on Social Media
|
Ethiopian Justice and Democratic Forces Front (EJDFF)
|
Opposition/Party
|
No
|
No
|
All Oromo People Democratic Party (AOPDP)
|
Opposition/Party
|
No
|
No
|
Argoba Nationality Democratic Movement (ANDM)
|
Opposition/Party
|
No
|
No
|
Ethiopian Raie Party (ARP)
|
Opposition/Party
|
No
|
No
|
Coalition For Unity and Democratic Party (CUDP)
|
Opposition/Party
|
No
|
No
|
Gamo-Gofa Peoples Democratic Unity (GPDU)
|
Opposition/Party
|
No
|
No
|
Blue Party (BP)
|
Opposition/
Party
|
Yes
|
|
Unity for Democracy and Justice Party (UDJ)
|
Opposition/
Party
|
Yes
|
|
Compiled by De Birhan October 2012
KENYA
We often use Kenyan cases
whenever we conduct comparative analysis of Ethiopian scenarios. Ethiopia’s Southern
neighbor, Kenya shares many similarities with Ethiopia and can be sometimes
taken as a benchmark to conduct comparative analysis of certain socio
political aspects.
INDEPENDENT ELECTORAL AND BOUNDARIES COMMISSION
(IEBC)
|
REGISTERED POLITICAL PARTIES 2012
Total : 53 parties in total
Purposively selected for this study: 23
|
Name of the Party
|
Online Presence
|
URL
|
|
|
Yes
|
|
|
THE NATIONAL
VISION PARTY
|
|
No
|
No
|
|
THE LABOUR
PARTY OF KENYA
|
|
Yes
|
|
|
|
No
|
No
|
|
UNITED
DEMOCRATIC FORUM PARTY
|
|
Yes
|
|
|
RESTORE
AND BUILD KENYA
|
Yes
|
and
in all Social Media
|
|
|
Yes
|
|
|
WIPER
DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT- KENYA
|
|
No
|
No
|
|
DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF KENYA
|
|
Yes
|
and
present in all Social Media
|
|
|
No
|
No
|
|
KENYA SOCIAL CONGRESS
|
No
|
No
|
|
NEW FORD KENYA
|
Yes
|
No
URL/Present of Social Media
|
|
PEOPLES PARTY OF KENYA
|
No
|
No
|
|
FORUM FOR RESTORATION OF DEMOCRACY-KENYA
|
No
|
No
|
|
PROGRESSIVE
PARTY OF KENYA
|
Yes
|
No
URL/Present on Social Media
|
|
KENYA AFRICAN DEMOCRATIC UNION-ASILI
|
No
|
No
|
|
KENYA AFRICAN
NATIONAL UNION
|
No
|
No
|
|
NATIONAL AGENDA
PARTY OF KENYA
|
Yes
|
|
|
SHIRIKISHO PARTY OF KENYA
|
Yes
|
|
|
UNITY PARTY OF KENYA
|
No
|
No
|
|
FEDERAL PARTY OF
KENYA
|
Yes
|
|
|
MUUNGANO
DEVELOPMENT MOVEMENT PARTY OF KENYA
|
No
|
No
|
|
Compiled by De Birhan, October 2012
Findings
The
above tables do fairly show the comparative similarities and differences of
Ethiopian and Kenyan opposition parties’ online presence. Using the same
variables of selection, 23 Political parties from Kenya were selected out of
which more than half of them were present online. In the case of Ethiopia, just
over 10.5% or only 4 of the total of the studied
opposition parties (38), have an online presence and still of which only three of
the four websites are regularly updated. Only one i.e UDJ’s is actively present
in all forms of social media. In the case of Kenya, 50% of the 23 political
parties have an online presence. Most of these parties have regularly updated
websites and are present on all social media forms out of which two are only
present only on social media (Facebook). Kenyan opposition fare better than
their Ethiopian counterparts in terms of online presence however they still
have a lot to improve.
Philip N. Howard wrote on his 2010 book The Digital Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy:
Information Technology and Political Islam that the numbers
of online Parties and All Political Parties in 2000 were 1 and 26 in Ethiopia. The number of Online Parties and All Political
Parties in 2005 in Ethiopia was 3 and 24. The Number of online parties hosted in country/number of online parties/
all political parties in 2008 was 0, 6 and 10. The volume of content provided by political parties for citizens
was indicated as moderate in 2008 by Howard.
In this age of speed, communication and technology, a political
party that is not present online or doesn’t use social media for all its
activities can be called “is better for nothing”. Especially, in a country like
Ethiopia, where the political restriction for public mobilization and organization
is high, using the online media should have been the main choice of these
legally operating parties. In contrast, however, rebel and Diaspora based
Ethiopian opposition parties were found to be present online than home based
parties. Ethiopian opposition movements based outside Ethiopia had their own
actively updated websites, at times social media and often mass media.
As much as we criticize the tyranny of the Ethiopian regime, we
need to speak loudly and constructively critique opposition parties.
Oppositions should not be established for name sake, ego of the founders or the
benefit of few in the leadership. It is bafflingly ludicrous to even imagine
anything to come from opposition political parties that don’t have any form of
online presence (Website or Social Media). Ethiopians listening to the names and deliberative
rhetoric of the leaders of the political parties, hope that change would come
by/from these parties. How were media and other organs able to collect
information regarding these parties when the parties had no Official Website?
It is a wonder that there are political parties which don’t understand the existence
of a “Facebook generation in Ethiopia” or attempt to reach these groups. The
problem is also exhibited within the ruling party too. Although having fairly
updated Websites, the Party's presence and engagement via other online forum is
thin. It is quintessentially timely that
we monitor and check the activities of the so called opposition parties as we
do the regime and support those that work and show us what opposing really is.
