Abstract
ETHIOPIA CARRIED OUT LOCAL ELECTIONS FOR NEIGHBOURHOOD (kebele) and county (woreda) assemblies on 13 and 20 April 2008, respectively.1 By law, these elections were supposed to be conducted in 2005, but the chaotic period after the general elections that year made it impossible to carry out the local polls. Considering the formative character of the 2005 general elections, where the opposition for the first time challenged the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), and the dramatic political crackdown in the post-election period, the conduct of the 2008 local elections is important in understanding the status and direction of Ethiopia’s overall process of democratization. The constrained political context and government strategies of intimidation and harassment – leading the main opposition parties to withdraw from the local elections – signal the return of electoral authoritarianism in Ethiopia.
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