Yemane Ghebreab Speaks on National Elections in Eritrea

Yemane Ghebreab, Presidential Adviser and Head of Political Affairs for the ruling PFDJ, gave an extensive presentation at the Bruno Kreisky Forum for International Dialogue on the topic of Eritrea’s political situation and its policy in the Horn of Africa.

The following is a transcript of what he said on national elections:

YEMANE GHEBREAB: I guess the question is when will there be elections? Maybe that's the question?

Again, as I said, we are working on a constitution for the country. And [when] that constitution is put in place, there will be elections and will see what happens then.

The whole issue of elections in Africa I think should not be an ideological issue. That's the way we look at it. There has to be empirical assessment of the impact of elections in Africa. Whether they are real elections, to begin with; and secondly, whether they have contributed positively to the people of Africa.

There's going to be two elections in the next two months in the Horn of Africa. I don't want to speak of other countries but the European Union clearly states that neither of these two elections will be free and fair elections. In fact, the EU has said it's not going to send observers to these elections. Those are the kind of elections we have in many parts of Africa.

On that question, that's what I want to say.

As I said, we are a new nation, and we are building our political system.

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Audio of Yemane's entire presentation is found here.

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