It was, the famous singer of Eritrea, Aberhet Ankere, who said " nebeyneye terife" (left alone). Her melody was about a young women who do not got a proposal of marriage while others were enjoying it. In this article, my concern is not marriage. I am married man and have two children, the third is on way. The issue is about election in Eritrea. There seems no sign at all, about election is going to be held in Eritrea.

We follow, elections around the world through media. Even elections were held in Bosnia. Who thought elections would be held in Bosnia, first of all. Elections were held in Pakistan, Germany and around the world in general. Every where, people are exercising their right to chose their representatives. I heard elections are very popular in Switzerland. People of Switzerland have the right to be consulted for major or minor issues, They have to be consulted if they want to eat Macaroni or Spaghetti (I am just kidding). Eritrea, left alone like Aberhet Ankere's song.

There is an election commission in Eritrea. The chair person is, the highly distinguished and well respected tegadalia Muhammad Nur. We are waiting, in fact long, he to make announcements or to make statements about the elections he is assigned to work on. At least, this time, he would have made it known public, the composition of his commission and eventually the activities, the commission is conducting. Mind you, it is going to be almost 10 months since the appointment of this commission. No sign, even of its existence alone. But you may ask, is it important to be concerned about elections in Eritrea, as if it is a fashion in this world? The answer is, yes it is very important to be concerned about elections. Because, that is the only means to secure the participation of the people in handling its affaire. You may ask again, is it only elections the means? What about fake and corrupted elections? To answer these questions, we need to go, in, to deep analysis of elections. However, I am not forgetting, the apology of the huge construction projects that are going in Eritrea. The external aggression and the destabilizing factories that are orchestrated by foreign allies against Eritrea are in my mind. But, still, I don't find any excuse, what so ever, not to conduct elections.

Let me talk, not to much but a little bit of the elections waged around near neighbors of Eritrea. The first one is Ethiopia. We Eritreians are the first and the most injured people by Ethiopians. They terrorized us and we consider them as the cruel aggressors in this world. Moreover, we don't have the confidence that they will let us live alone peacefully. Because of those rough and hard times we had with them we don't want to mention them on good terms. Needless to say about the atrocities committed by Ethiopians against the Eritrean people, but when, after time elapses and the dust settles, who knows a good time comes and the Ethiopian and Eritrean people becomes good friends, I tell you, it is dream but when it becomes realty, the strongest, the prosperous and happy people, among the happiest people in this world are going to be. Putting aside this wishful hope aside, I ask a permission from my people I to say, a few words good about Ethiopia. And that is the election they waged are more worthy than the lame excuses of ours in delaying elections. At least, they gained experience a head of us. For sure, next time they are going to do much better learning from their past mistakes. We Eritreans are not practicing elections at the national level and what we missing is the experience. I don't ask a perfect election but I ask let us learn from experience.

Djibouti, not more than one million people are marching towards modern election and they have gained a lot of experience from previous elections. Now they are heading for multi-political parts election which is more advanced in the Horn of Africa.

Sudan, is a country that thwarted elections early and ended up in its present chaos. When the military junta came to power by throwing the elected prime Minster by coop, it promised to solve the Sudanese problem smoothly. It didn't worked the military's junta way and it did came back to elections. In Sudan, unlike in Ethiopia and Djibouti, the elections were very discriminatory and it was held under the barrel of gun. But we remember it as elections were conducted.

Kenya, are doing well in elections. experience has thought them a lot and now they are in a position to have control on elections results. After 25 years rule the present regime is going to hand power to other candidates. The experience of Kenya, if it went as reasonable as the case of Zambia, then there is going to be a drastic change in the political atmosphere in East Africa.

Now, let us go far from Eritrea. Even Saddam Hussein conducted elections. The Iraqi people gave him a mandate of 7 years more rule, but the Americans want to shorten it. In Afghanistan, with the removal of Taliban, the people exercised their right to choose their leaders.

I as a resident of Norway, have full right in casting my vote both for the national parliament and to the elections of municipality. I enjoy it very much and I never miss in casting my vote. I am very aware and attentive to whom I to give my cast. I follow the political debate of the different political parts and all the time a give my support to an individual or party that is sympathetic to foreigners. Because that is my interest. I can give you a concrete example how participating in elections give moral satisfaction.

It was in the last election of municipality, here in Norway, the alliance of the conservative with the racist part the progressive party, got one mandate majority against the alliances of the workers party and the socialist party. The one mandate majority happened in favor to the conservatives and the candidate was a Pakistani man by origin but have a Norwegian citizenship. After the alliances of the workers and socialist party left the office and handed over, to the winner, the conservative and the progressive parts, there came a raw of a debate that initiated by the racist progressive party. The debate was, about making accounts of every foreigner in Norway, to know the expenses, Norway, is making to the welfare of foreigners. It was very discriminatory and racist issue. The majority of the conservative party agreed with the proposal to appease the progressive party except one man. And that was the Pakistan- Norwegian man. He sided against the resolution and he gave his support to the opposition parts. By dong so, he had to leave his party and join the opposition parts. The alliances of the conservative and the progressive party collapsed. Since the conservative had the majority of the vote they were asked to form the administration alone without the progressive party. Look now how important is elections in citizens life. I am proud and it gives me moral satisfaction, the date, a got to the polling satiation and caste my vote according to my preferences.

The problem of not conducting elections in Eritrea is complex. On one hand, there is this external interference and on the other hand the internal exclusionary method. I want to talk first about the external interference's.

Eritrea is strategically important country. It is the Red Sea, that gives Eritrea, the status of important strategically country. This strategic interest had coasted the Eritrean people very much and still it is coasting a lot. In the forefront, it is USA that is very busy in manipulating this situation. It was long time, I tried to say few words about USA's intrigues against Eritrea to press it to hand over some of its sovereignty to fulfil its strategic interest in the Red Sea. The Eritrean government had the pain to keep the balance not to confront the USA demand in one hand and not to sell the sovereignty of Eritrea on the other hand. I wrote an article by the tittle " The Cruel Policy of This World" in asmarino.com. In that article, I tried to show, how the USA government was pressing the Eritrean government in initiating the war and prolonging it until Eritrea makes some concessions to the USA demand. Now it has became to the surface that US state department issued about human right violations in Eritrea (US Voices Concern About Human Right Violations in Eritrea David Gollust State Department 18 Oct 2002, 00:40 UTC) and the Eritrean government reciprocated (State Department's Statement cannot be Acceptable Ministry of Foreign Affairs Asmara 18 October 2002, in asmarino.com) by exposing the pressure imposed upon it by US to make concessions. It is not wonder to me that when this time USA comes with this strange statements. I can say bluntly that it is a revenge by USA against Eritrea, that still Eritrea is contacting Libya. The statement of the State department to come after the wake of visit of delegations of Libya to investigate the eastern border with Sudan is not surprise to me. I had already expected it. If he is going to tell me that the USA is concerned about human right in Eritrea I will laugh on him. The statement of Eritrea is plausible and I support it. And every true citizen of Eritrea has to support it. Eritrea, as a sovereign country, has the right to make sister countries as friends. Yes, it is true that, Eritrea has to be cautious in making alliances and it have to differentiate explicitly active and passive diplomatic relations. For example, this time taking in consideration the enmity of USA and Libya, for Eritrea it is wise to have passive diplomatic relationship with Libya. You know politics is game and somebody has to know how to play it.

Above all, I believe that, what so ever in circling by neighbor countries or intimidation by USA the decisive factor is the unity of the people. That is why I consistently ask the Eritrean government to solve the internal political problem by including all Eritreans to participate. If there is no, even a single person ,excluded from the right to participate in Eritrea ,what so ever intimidation from external is immaterial. Look how the USA succeeded to remove the Taliban. As long as there to be found opposition groups, irrespective of their number or power they can be the means to give chance for the external power to succeed in interfering in otheres internal affair. I can give you an example what happened here in Norway. Once the King of Sweden accused the then prime Minster of Norway, now head of WHO, of not doing enough to stop the "barbaric" way of hunting whales. What the king did was correct when we look the situation on humanitarian basis. But, Norway, has its own clarification why it is killing whales. The reason is to let fishes reproduce and multiply in the Norwegian water. The point here is, not to complicate the matter by immersing to unnecessary discussion about whales. The point is, to show, how important the unity of people is against foreign country. All political parties and the people of Norway reacted vigorously against the King of Sweden. You can not believe, even the most opponent of the then prime Minster were at the forefront to defend her. The king of Sweden had no choices, except to invite the prime Minster and asked her an apology. Look how the unity of people reacts and paralyzes external interference. Eritrea could do the same, if the Eritrean government, would be wise enough, to open the door, to all, to participate without exception. History is teaching us how exclusion or inclusion is ending. Typical example is the case of Afghanistan in the former case and the case of Norway to the later one.

Conclusion, the importance of election is not a show, it is the manifestation of the exercise of the right of a people. Conducting elections will not be an excuse to the hindrance of the ongoing reconstruction of Eritrea. Elections for national parliament to Eritrea is going to give us the experience of direct participation of the Eritrean people in the say of its destiny. Remembering the vote we had during the referendum for Eritrean independence, the Eritrean people is matured enough to participate in elections. Now, there is hope that our president has promised that the process that was started and thwarted by the Weyane aggression is to continue. The president is approaching one step forward to the demand of the people, likewise the opposition gropes have to be positive and they have to look for constructive dialogue in future.

God bless Eritrea.
Tesfamicael Yohannes
Oslo, Norway

The following note is, from the book "ROGUE STATE", by William Blum.
quotation from "Perverting Elections".

"It shall be unlawful for a foreign national directly or through any other person to make any contribution of money or other thing of value, or to promise expressly or impliedly to make any such contribution, in connection with an election to any political office or in connection with any primary election.

Title 2, United States Code Amended (USCA), Section 441e(a)"

Additional information about elections in Eritrea,

Hagere Eretra/al-Dawla al-Iritra (State of Eritrea)

Executive:
President: Issayas Aferworki (1993) PFDJ
The president is an interim president not yet elected. The government is formed by the PFDJ.

Parliament:
The Hagerawi Baito (National Assembly) has 104 members, 60 members appointed and 44 members representing the members of the Central Committee of the People's Front for Democracy and Justice. According to the IPU parliament has 150 indirectly elected members. The National Assembly was composed in february 1992.
AFP reported that Eritreans have elected 399 representatives in the country's six regions in a lengthy process that will lead to the formation of a constituent assembly. The regional elections began on 4 january 1997 in some parts of the country and were completed in others by 1 march 1997. Only the People's Front for Democracy and Justice (authoritarian) is allowed.