Many registration stations are seen idle most of the time with one or two people showing up for registration at an interval of several minutes. Looking bored, those who register the voters and the observers try to make good with their group conversations and coffee time. It seemed all registration stations were equipped with charcoal furnaces, traditional clay coffee pot and all the materials they needed for coffee making.
If only one person arrives to register, that would keep only one person busy for not more than two or three minutes while the others watched. Obviously the election process will be warming up after the registration, and the people at various registration stations did not seem to have had handled a lot of journalists since the registration began 20 days ago, but at the same time there seemed to have been some form of preparedness in anticipation of journalists.
At various places Fortune visited, they seemed to be aware of the need for journalists to have passes from the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE). At one place there was complete refusal by a representative of the NEBE to give any information to any journalist that did not have the pass.
"I am telling you this in front of the observer," he kept saying seeking legitimacy for his refusal.
At another station an elderly guard manhandled Fortune's reporter, tore his notes to pieces and forced him out of the compound. Still these individual behaviours were only limited and Fortune was able to talk to a number of people, both election officials and potential voters to get a feel of the process.
All the stations are staffed with election officials who undertake the registration and observe the process. On Friday, January 29, 2010, in a small room at Kebele 02 of the Bole District, which was a registration station, there were three public observers, one registrar and one election coordinator. Thirty minutes after Fortune's reporter had arrived at the site, one lady appeared to register. Felekech Ketema, 55 and a mother of five, acquired her voter card in a few minutes and took time to talk to Fortune. The way she spoke betrayed some level of political awareness. Her answer was fast and to the point.
"It is my right of citizenship to vote and I believe women should participate in the political development of the country," she said.
She added that good governance can only be acquired when there is a free and fair election, although she asserted that she was going to vote for the same party she had voted for in 2005.
She recommended that political parties should focus on establishing an ethical society.
"I think that is the base for social, economic and political development. If we can do that, our country will be on the right path," Felekech added.
Her political zest in no way made up for the boredom of sitting and waiting for voters to come forward. Demeke Eshete, the election coordinator, folded his legs and ran a hand through his hair as he talked to Fortune.
"It may be part of our culture to wait until the last minute. But I think people will get into it soon," he said.
The NEBE had announced earlier last week that 17.5 million voters had registered in half the time given, out of the total expected 32 million voters; augmenting the board's feeling that the registration would be completed in time. At the few stations which Fortune had visited, most of the registered voters were in their 20s and 30s, but even people much older, including one 98 year old man, had registered.
Demeke is, however, fearful that the expected 6,500 voters from the 18 stations in Kebele 02 may not materialise, although in the one station Fortune visited, 400 voters had registered by noon on Friday, January 29, 2010. In other stations in Bole, Arada, Kirkos and Lideta districts as few as six and as many as 15 voters were registering daily, occasional stations reporting higher numbers, including an exception 154 in one station in Arada District.
Those who came to register seemed mostly to have made up their mind. Some openly said that they were going to vote for the ruling EPRDF; others said their choice was their own secret but admitted that they had already made up their mind. A few said they would wait for the election campaign to begin before they would make their decision.
Bethel, a 21 year old resident of Lideta District, said that she was determined not to miss her first opportunity to vote.
"It is my obligation as a citizen," she said.
She declined to disclose which party she favoured, but she said she would vote for that party that cared for young people by creating job opportunity and for women by creating equal opportunities.
An Adama resident, who had voted for CUD in 2005, doubted that there could be the same spirit in 2010. He insisted that he would not vote in this election
"This time I do not know who is who," he said.
Reyot Mattiwos, 36, a resident of Hawassa who works in an aid organisation, says he never cared about elections.
"Maybe in the final months of the campaign things might get exciting and I might consider registering," he said, not realising that less than three weeks were left before the registration would end.
The period that followed the 2005 tumultuous election certainly has played in favour of the EPRDF as some people Fortune spoke to were shifting their support from CUD which they had voted for in 2005 to the ruling party which has made them feel that "development was attainable."
These people are far from an acceptable statistical sample, but the opposition parties have already started expressing discontent at the way the registration process is taking place and asking for an extension of the registration period.
Hailu Shawel, leader of the All Ethiopia Unity Party (AEUP), who was quoted in the papers as having said that his party had a lot of supporters even in Tigray - the stronghold of the ruling party, is complaining that registration stations have been located in difficult to find places for the supporters of his party to easily register.
The ruling party was hindering the rural public in Tigray from registering by employing them in food for work programmes, says Seyee Abreha, vice-president for public relations of the Unity for Democracy and Justice (UDJ).
Beyene Petros (Prof.), chairman of United Ethiopian Democratic Force (UEDF), also had this complaint. "Teenagers under the age of 18 organised by the ruling party have already acquired the voting cards," he said.
These opposition leaders asked for an extension of registration so they could mobilize their supporters to register. Bereket Simon, member of the Central Committee of the EPRDF, rejected the all charges against his party.
"One million voters are registering daily. We cannot say they are all EPRDF supporters," he said adding that so many people would not register daily if the registration places were out of way.
Apparently the game is afoot. The blame game will continue, and the climax will be reached when campaigns start on February 9, the day the registration ends. They will be given a period when each will show the best that they have got. The verdict will be given by the voting public on May 23, 2010.
Ayenew Hailesellasie and Wudineh Zenebe, as well as Daniel Kifle, from Adama, and Abnet Assefa, from Hawassa, have contributed to this story.
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