Jack Kingston: “I rise today to discuss democracy and elections in Ethiopia. As this country has been a close ally of the United States…”

“I rise today to discuss democracy and elections in Ethiopia. As this country has been a close ally of the United States in the war on terror, it is critical that we encourage their evolution from monarchy to communism to democracy. I used to live in Ethiopia as a child, and I lived there when Haile Selassie was the emperor. And even under a monarchy, Ethiopia had a lot of good things going for it. And as they have always been an ally of ours, strangely, we often forget them. Ethiopia is divided into nine states along linguistic and ethnic lines. It is a 3,000-year-old civilization which until the 1970s was under a monarchy, and then a brutal Marxist junta through him over. Civil war and famines racked the country in the 1980s. Calm finally began to return in 1991 when Meles Zenawi, who assisted in the overthrow of the junta, became president and finally prime minister 4 years later. Since that time, Ethiopia has participated in a total of three elections. That is three elections in a 3,000-year history. This past spring, Ethiopia held their second election since the introduction of multiparty politics and the first under international scrutiny. Thirty-five political parties vied for seats in the 547 seat lower house of parliament called the Council of People's Representatives. Voters also chose representatives in nine regional state parliaments that will appoint members of parliament's upper house, the Council of the Federation.…”