On Elections - Yap Moment

(unedited)

Let me start with why I decided to vote in the first place. For me, it wasn't as much about it being counted or making an impact, it was the following two things.

The first was because I wanted to understand the electoral process as a voter. I wanted, as simple as it seemed, the intricacies of what happened and how a normal citizen went through it. And I did get what I wanted to observe, which was a systemic understanding on how things are supposed to operate both in theory and in real-life.

The second, and the reason I knew I was going to vote the moment I saw the registration posters, was the principle behind it. The question I had for myself was this: "how can I say I have a stand or an opinion of where this country goes and how I want things to operate when I don't even make the slightest effort to show it?". Here's the thing here, the point wasn't about my vote being counted, it was about the principle behind casting the vote. It was about having a stand and fulfilling a responsibility that I felt as an Ethiopian, and I can say I've fulfilled the responsibility. I felt good after I had voted because, I can say I have made a well-researched stand that I believed in, in the most peaceful and least effortful way possible.

That being said, let me walk you through the process.

I registered online, which was pretty straightforward for the most part. The tiny bug I encountered was not being able to type my Amharic name in, which I found was because I used space before my name (and the app didn't strip it when it registered) and nothing else.

As for research, I read up in-between life's shenanigans on current issues and skimmed through some of the debates before the day before the election. To be honest, I couldn't say I researched well before it, it was more being updated on issues and mapping out my candidates than full on research. For the actual research day, which was the night before the election (sue me), I mainly used Fraol's website as my main source.

The first thing I did was research deeply into the candidates, and I could say, for my vote for who gets to represent me at the HoPR, I made an individual-based decision than a party-based decision. The two top candidates at my constituency had very public profiles which were very interesting and very fun to look into (they were Dr. Gedion Timothewos - Prosperity and Architect Yohannes Mekonnen - Ezema). They both had such intellectual backgrounds and have done such interesting work that I really really enjoyed digging into their background. And at the end, when I made my decision, it was also based off on that.

The second thing was look up debate summaries on general party policies (the 4-or-so minute speeches). Basically, what I did here was look into the policy briefs of each debate, then go back to Fraol's website and look up the summaries for the questions and everything else. This was also interesting, especially because I was approaching it with a somewhat set opinion on some of the policies and had tried, well... couldn't say to the best of my ability, updated myself on some of the policies I wasn't updated on. I also enjoyed this ngl.

The third thing was look up the candidates for the Regional Council. This I couldn't do much about ngl, considering very few in my sub-city had public profiles and even those who did, it was quite minimal. For the process, I just downloaded the general list from the National Election Board Website, dumped it onto Claude to parse for my sub-city people, then filtered from there. So my first filter (and I lowkey question this gn I also stand by it) was based on education levels. So no one less than a Bsc/BA/LLB, though at the end I went for those with an MA and above. The second filter was party stances. The last one was based on the tid bits of info I got online. So I think I filtered from 26 to top 6, and those were the people I voted for.

Something I wished for here was, I wished there was more info on individuals and city-level policies. I had to infer city-level policies from general debates and go hunting deep into the internet and I didn't like that. Even a brief overview of who each person is, their background, stances... would've really helped especially at the regional level.

As for actual election day shenanigans, besides the wait (and I lowkey didn't hate the wait, I got to read my book and socialize with some of the people there, it was nice), I don't have much to complain ngl. Except, bro, why do the photos on the ballot look like they were mugshots lmaooo, that was a "huh" moment, gn beyond that, it was all good.

A caveat to add here, I wish there was awareness and clarity on how to vote before I got to the polling station. I thought I was only able to vote for one for regional council and I was confused. Knowing that I had 12 votes for Regional Council would've actually helped.

But all said and done, I don't regret it. For one, I really enjoyed researching stuff and it lowkey reminded me of my interest in politics as a system that surrounds us, the policies we're affected by, and as something intellectual. And for another, I could say I'm somewhat updated on general policies, direction, and how the government and electoral process works now. So cheers, can't wait for the results :))

Guess the ballot and I will see each other again after 5 years (well... no guarantees there).