By Habte Kidane

The long anticipated event of the Eritrean National Commission for Democratic Change’s (ENCDC) congress in Awasa, Ethiopia is already history. It has been almost a week since the final day of the congress. What is extremely strange is the lack or the absence of news coverage about the congress in all the opposition websites. It appears some of the opposition websites appear to be non-functional and some do not care to publish news coverage although their websites appear to be operational. It is especially mind boggling to see the Awate.com and Assena.com are not operational at the same time. I am not sure if Assena and Awate websites were breached with dangerous virus or Trojan horse or if it is a voluntary preplanned website re-construction or overhaul in a time of high information demand from many stakeholders. At least, Assena was on top of things about the congress in Awasa up to the point of malfunction, but if he has problem with the website unexpectedly, he should have sent information to his readers and listeners through other means such as announcing in Paltalk rooms.

As for Awate, I do not see any legitimate excuse for not using other media outlets such as EDA, Togoruba, Asmarino websites if his website was breached or not working due to other reasons. In fact, he was not passing along any information in the first week of the congress while his website was operational either. Mr. Salih Gadi Johar, the owner of the Awate.com happens to be in Awasa for the whole duration of the congress. This means as a news person and as a stakeholder of the ENCDC congress, he should have used his presence in the conference to shine at that critical moment and feed current news information to his audience. You expect him to pass along first-hand unbiased detailed information about the decisions made in the congress, how they were made and all the intricacies that goes on in a congress of this magnitude.

What about the ENCDC news information as the main actors of the event? Does that mean, the absence of Daniel Tewelde impacted that much that there was no person or group replacing him or that his firing was on purpose to block news coverage? What about EDA’s 11 organizations’ and Gereger websites? The question is- Is this a timely coincidence or an intentional blockage to contain or prevent negative information from being leaked to the general public?  I think there are more questions than answers as to such kind of silence and lack of information about the congress in general and the final leadership selection process and results in particular.

It is prudent to think that if one demands democracy, you expect them to live and practice democratic behaviors and be transparent about any public related endeavors and processes. I think attempting to conceal information from the general public have greater consequences to the overall reputation and credibility of the news media and those hosting the congress such ENCDC and EDA alike. Although I was not giving importance or weight about the selection of Awasa as a place of congress, now I kind of wonder whether the place of congress was selected on purpose to prevent more coverage or prevent information leakage. I called some people who reside in Addis seeking for information whom I thought they know what is going-on, but strangely it appears I have more information than they do. ENCDC commissioners, EDA leaders, Journalists in the congress and Website owners need to understand that the more one attempts to conceal information, people get more curious to know and wind-up demanding more information.

Now my patience is getting thinner due to the whole episode. As an Eritrean struggling for democratic change and as a stakeholder of the ENCDC Congress, I am requesting the Commission, Congress Secretariat and the new leadership to disclose the following information publicly within a reasonable amount of time which should not take more than a week:

1. List names, of the 544 congress attendees
2. Each congress participant’s political and/or civic affiliation or representation
3. Regional (North America, Europe, Asia,  Australia, Middle-East, Sudan and Ethiopia) Representation  statistics
4. Since the claim was a 60% public and 40% political organizations representation arrangement, what are the actual percentile of the following

• What are the actual percentages of public vs. political organizations?
• What mitigating controls were available to prevent fraud from both sides?
• What are actual percentages public vs. political organizations in the newly elected 127 National Council for Democratic Change?

1. List of name of the 127 elected National Council for Democratic Change
2. What was the number and percentage of congress attendees belonging to the 11 EDA political organizations and how was determined?
3. What is the factual/actual number of National Council leaders belonging to the EDA 11 Political organizations? Note: Please do not tell me 66, I just want the actual number for the record.
4. Daniel Tewelde vs. the Commissions investigative findings and final resolution.

If we do not stand for one individual’s right, I do not think we stand for rights of the people. There has to be a lot of lessons that we can learn about this. Daniel Tewelde at least deserves a fair hearing and due process before taking his right not participating in the congress. Since we were told that the commission was accountable to the congress/Waela, no one gave them the mandate and authority to disband him from participating. If they had evidence that he works for PFDJ, it is even tactically wrong to wait until one week to the start of the congress. That by itself reflects the sense of deficit of political maturity of the decision makers and individuals who supported their actions.

In conclusion, I appreciate your honest historical answers in advance and looking forward reading and analyzing them as a prudent stakeholder whom I invested heavily and anticipated greater hopes patiently.  I will refrain from making judgments at this juncture until you provide your answers in the public domain which should not take you more than a week to publish it. I think, it is paramount you take this request seriously because it will hinge on your credibility whether or not the general public can take your claim for democratic change seriously. If you chose to ignore the request and failed to provide factual information to the general public, your history will be tainted and will be remembered as hypocrites not better than the totalitarian dictatorial regime in Asmara.