Coalition For Unity and Democracy - Criticisms

Criticisms

Engineer Hailu, a leader of the AEUP, was one of the ministers working for the previous Ethiopian Derg regime led by Mengistu Haile Mariam. Under the Derg government, it was one of the darkest eras for Ethiopia, which some sources claim up to 1,500,000 Ethiopians were victims of the genocide. Due to this, many people have been worried about his rise into the executive leadership of this opposition party. It should be noted that Engineer Hailu held an insignificant ministry, The Ministry of State Farms and his role was primarily technical management of farms. He was never a significant player in the regime and had little influence on issue that had to do beyond the State Farms.

Also various negotiations between the UEDP-medhin opposition party and the AEUP opposition party failed. And this was a major problem for the AEUP that was originally united with UEDP-Medhin to make up the CUD because without UEDP-Medhin, CUD support in Addis Ababa would have been "no more than marginal." Most people, including UEDP-Medhin and Rainbow party, have pointed out the hardliners inside AEUP, particularly Hailu Shawel, were the reasons for the disagreements. Some members said AEUP leaders like Hailu Shawel "are chauvinists and dictators who think that they are the only best opposition party."

The other issue was about accepting the parliamentary seats of the CUD party. When UEDP and others Disrespected the vote of the people and took their seats, some AEUP members, forced by Dr. Hailu, didn't take their seats because they believed there was election fraud. Later, they organized a demonstration, even though demonstrations were banned at the time. Government officials said they banned demonstrations to calm the city and the tense situation. In the end, the demonstration ended in violence with rioters attacking the police. Some said the hardliners in AEUP knew there would be massive riots beforehand. One SBS journalist, Olivia Rousset, indicated that the government used too much force to calm the rioters. She also said that the "stone-throwing rioters" tried to take the guns from the security forces.

A major issue arose when even the closest people to Dr. Hailu rejected his stance and wanted to take their parliamentary seats instead of joining the banned protests that turned to riots. One of them, Berhanu Nega, stated that elected MPs and City Councilors would be betraying their constituents if they failed to take their seats. But at the end, the minority in AEUP, including Hailu Shawel, forced CUD members to change direction, thus causing a permanent division between UEDP and AEUP. Most sources claim that the Rainbow party also split from Hailu's AEUP but the decision of mayor choice issues between UEDP and Rainbow allowed Hailu to dictate Rainbow's destiny. US observers and the United States government praised the 2005 elections saying "These elections stand out as a milestone in creating a new, more competitive multi-party political system in one of Africa’s largest and most important countries." The U.S. report also called on all newly elected members of the Ethiopian parliament to take their seats. Following the split in the party, most subparties in CUD itself are working in the parliament as are the other opposition parties, with the exception of Hailu's AEUP members who have been charged with inciting the riots that resulted in many deaths.