1.Describe the concept , significance and function of election?

The concept of election

Election is a formal group decision making process by which a population chosen an individual
or multiple individuals to hold public office and the mechanism by which people can choose
they’re representatives at regular intervals and changes them when ever they want to is called
an election or an accepting or rejecting political proposition by voting .

 It is a public vote up on a proportion submitted.

 It is the art of electing.
 The selection of a person or person for office by vote.
 To elect means “to select or make a decision”.

the significance of election

Election are among the most acquisition of contemporary political institution, and voting is the
only positives political act undertaking by majority of citizens in most other countries in the
world today's .

Election are among the oldest of political institution dating back at least to the beginning of the
country. election are thus oldest than the offices of the priminister or the civil servies,they
antedate political parties too.in ancient lands such as chaina,Japan and India they are among
the newest of political institiution.

Election are the lifeline of ademocracy. We need election for the following reasons:

1. It is the best way by which representatives of the people can be. Chosen and sent to
legislature.

2. When there is contest between deferrence candidates for the same position it gives the
voter agreater choices of selection and makes it easy to elect candidates by casting their vote.

3. Elections helps the people to put acheck on the activities of the government b/c political
parties known.that they will be ousted from power if they do not perform according to the
expection of the poeple.

4 by contesting election either as members of apolitical party or as an independent candidate

make Lawes and polices for the welfare of their people and their country.
Election todayes have become the most visible symbol of the democratices process .

Function of election

election makes a fundamental contribution to democracy governance .b/c direct democracy

aform of government in which political decision are made.

- voting

- collecting

- counting the votes

- determing the election

- confirming the winner of individuals election votes

- confirming the president

An election: defined as the process by which qualified voter are given the chances to vote for
their preferred candidates to occupy leadership position in the government of the day.

Election of leaders: is to help in the selection of leaders to run the affair of the state for the
constitution determined period .in an. Election,ther are several competing candidates for the
same position themseleves and choose from the lot.

Legitimise the government of the day: at election,the electorate are expected to vote to
choose awinner.onece the final resultes are widely accepted and declared it makes the
government that is put in place legitimate .

this is unlike agornmment that comes to power through the barrel of the run which is
illegitimate.

Important of election :

The following are the important of election

1. Election give people the opportunity to choose thiere leaders.

2. Through election the principle of democracy is promoted.
 3. It gives elected representative the legitimate right to rule it is a fare and civilized way of
placing people in the position of authority
4. Election will enable the government to know the mind of the people which is called
public opinion.
5. It is used to access the performance of elected public officers.

Ensures a peaceful change of government

In many democracy system,elections are held every four or five years and winner declared to
form agovernment.when aruling party loses an election ,another parties must form the new
government so election ensure a peaceful change of government.

Ensures accountability:

Elections makes government responsible and accountablity to the people the government of
the day knowns it has to accounts to the four or so previous years.since it is possible for the
government to lose. The election they makes sure they work in the interest of the people.

Determines how acceptability agovernment:

An other function of an election is that is helps measures how acceptable the government
loses the election ,it shows the people do not want that particular party. if the government it.

Allow for political education :

when it is time for an election ,the various parties go out to campaign so that the electorate
would vote for themthey help to educates the people and ensure that they are political
educated.

2 what types of election exist in Ethiopia ? List and expilan .

 Under the current constitution ,Ethiopian conduct local ,regional,and federal

level,Ethiopian elect alegislature.
 At the federal level ethiopia elects alegislature the federal parlimantary assembly has
two chambers:
 The house of representatives with not more then 550 members as per the constitutes
but actually nearly 545 members , elected for five years terms in single seat
constitution .,and the council of the federation with 117 members ,one each from each
professional sectors of its remaings nationalities ,designated by the rigional
councile ,which may elects them themselves or through popular elections.
 Ethiopian is a dominant party state in that acoalitio,the prosperity party ,is the
lstrongest party in the country. Reform to political party legislation have opened up for
opposition parties to operates in the country and many have been registered under the
new law,but the prosperity party remains the dominant party in the political landscape.
Types of election
1. General election
the maximum number of representatives who can be elected to the HOPR is 550. The
number of members who can be elected to state councils is determind by regional
states. How over, regions are require to pass a final decision on the number of state
council members six months before the commitment of candidate registration.
2. Local election
Are elections for council members of nationality zone, woreda, city, sub city or kebele.
The number of representatives for local elections is determined by regional low.

The constrained political context and government strategies of intimidation and harassment
– leading the main opposition parties to withdraw from the local elections – signal the return
of electoral authoritarianism in Ethiopia.

3. By-elections as with all votes, are conducted by the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia
(NEBE) at the request of councils to fill a seat of a representative vacant for various reasons
or when a recall of a representative is approved by law. NEBE is required to hold by-
elections within six months after receiving the request except in cases where the council
requesting the by-elections is left with a term of six months or less.
 4.Re-elections

The term “re-election” refers to an incumbent office holder being elected for a further
legislative term. A fundamental element of representative democracy is the ability to
periodically vote in and out representatives through elections.

In many democratically elected legislatures around the world, elected officials are able to
serve an unlimited number of terms in office, and can, therefore, challenge for re-election
until they retire or end up losing an election.

However, some democratically elected office holders may only serve a limited number of
terms. One famous example is the office of President of the United States of America. The
Twenty-second Amendment of the US Constitution sets out that “no person shall be elected
to the office of the President more than twice”. As a result, the US presidents may only
contest for re-election once.

Many non-political institutions set limits on term lengths and require office holders to wait a
number of years before attempting re-election.
Referendum is carried out on the basis of a decision of an organ authorized under the
Federal Constitution or other relevant laws to assess public interest or garner a public
decision.

3.List and explain features of election?

One Member, One Vote

Our technology only allows one vote to be recorded per member, and completely prevents
duplicate voting from ever taking place. We use a central voting list that checks off each
member’s name once their vote is processed. Once their name is crossed off, a duplicate
vote—which is exceedingly rare—is prohibited from being counted.
 Secret Ballots

To maintain secrecy, Election Central® has a system in place to separate and make
indistinguishable voters from how they voted. Similar to a person dropping a paper ballot
into a box, there’s no way to associate a vote with a voter after the vote has been processed.
Our auditing system can identify who has voted but cannot disclose how they voted.

Reliability

Accessibility and reliability are the keys to any great voting system. We stress dependability
because we’ve made the necessary precautions to eliminate “main server” failures. We can
provide you with more technical information about how we prevent system disruptions in
future phone calls or meetings. The important thing is you can rest assured knowing that
we’ve used the same system continuously since 2003, and have had zero interruptions since

EMBs can use electoral technology in virtually all aspects of managing the electoral
process:

 Voter registration systems for building and maintaining a voter register with personal
details of all eligible voters in electronic format, in some cases also biometric
information such as photographs or finger print scans. Voter registration data in
electronic format can be used in many ways (e.g. data cross-checks, duplicate
detection, issuing voter identification documents, targeting voter information, planning
and electoral logistics, producing voter lists for polling stations and obtaining
demographic information about the electorate).
 Voter identification systems (electronic poll books) for checking the eligibility of each
voter at the polling station level by comparing his or her personal details to a database
of all eligible voters.
 Party and candidate registration systems, for tracking the registration status of all
political subjects for an election, checking any required support signatures and
providing the data in appropriate formats for designing ballot papers and tally sheets,
configuring voting machines, etc.
 Observer registration and accreditation systems, for tracking the accreditation process
for citizen and international observers and issuing their identification documents.
 District and boundary delimitation systems, using geographical in- formation systems
to delimit political boundaries and distribute polling stations and catchment areas.
 Electronic voting and vote-counting systems, various systems ranging from machine
counting of paper ballots to voting machines used in polling stations and Internet
voting systems; these speed up the counting process and eliminates human interference.
 Result tabulation and transmission systems, for processing electronically captured
turnout and results data, greatly speeding up related procedures and avoiding and
detecting human error through automation and data cross-checks.
 Results publishing systems, for presenting and visualizing election results in various
formats including maps, charts, detailed results databases and overviews.
 Voter information systems to provide voters and other electoral stakeholders with
detailed data about electoral process. Such systems include polling station locators
allowing voters to easily find their polling station, legal databases of regulations,
information about parties and candidates running for election, databases allowing
access to detailed election results and statistics, and continuously updated calendars
with key events and deadlines.
 E-learning systems, for the professional development of EMB staff.

All of these electoral information and communications technology (ICT) solutions employ a
wide range of technology, from simple mobile phones to private satellite links, from
standard productivity and collaboration systems to specialized biometric databases, and
from private intranet systems to public websites and social media channels.

Initially, electoral technology was often entirely custom built for each EMB, based on
general-purpose ICT systems. In such systems, any specific electoral functionality had to be
built from scratch. In recent years, however, election technology vendors have increased
their range of products and provide ready-made solutions that only require relatively minor
adjustments to local requirements and conditions.
4.What are the significance of participation of political parties in election?

Political parties are the institutions that represent people on a higher platform. Political
parties that contest elections have faith of people in them and represent their issues in front
of the governing body, be it local or central.

Let us see why we need political parties:

Like minded people, or people fighting for a common cause tend to come together to form
a party. This has several benefits, such as increase in range and audience of the people, so
that they are able to convey their message to larger masses without creating confusion.

If people fighting for a common cause contested elections on their own, they would
obviously contest against each other, creating ambiguity for the voters and significantly
reducing the chances of winning of any candidate.

Let us assume there are no political parties in India. Then every person would contest
elections as individual, thereby creating too many different candidates for elections. As no
candidate would be able to win the majority of votes in the state, there would be a coalition
of candidates after election, resulting in an unstable government that won’t be able to take a
solid decision.

The individual expense of fighting an election will significantly increase as every

candidate would have to contest the election on his/her own expense. This will increase
corruption as people will tend to take money from various sponsors and post elections, will
tend to work in their favor.

Political Parties are the main gatekeepers for candidates to participate in elections. Parties
therefore have great influence over the degree of young people’s political participation at
local, regional, and national levels. In most countries, parties determine which candidates
are nominated and elected and which issues achieve national prominence. They decide who
will be placed on their candidate lists and at which position. Political parties’ nomination
processesnull have not always favored young candidates, as they are often placed in low
positions on candidates’ lists (in proportional representation ‘closed list’ electoral systems),
with very limited possibilities to get elected. As intermediary institutions, they link the state
and civil society, translating the policy preferences of citizens into political action.
Individuals with political ambition are likely to seek out leadership positions within political
parties. Most are of these aspiring leaders are middle-aged men.

The persistent exclusion of youth stems from a variety of factors, including: “old-boy”
networks, recruitment, and promotion mechanisms based on seniority, a lack of individual
capacities, and limited self-confidence and motivation. Engagement in political parties often
requires long-term commitments, which is difficult for youth trying to obtain an education
and to establish themselves in the labor market. Middle-aged men tend to have a greater
powerbase, because they comprise a large percentage of members. In some cases, youth face
more than one kind of discrimination because of their gender or because they can also
belong to other marginalized groups (i.e. indigenous people, people with disabilities, and/or
be lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender).

These obstacles fuel a cycle where youth are put off by the exclusionary nature of political
parties and decide not to join them. In turn, because they do not join, they lack the internal
powerbase to win elections and nominations. Both issues should be addressed to break the
cycle: youth should be able to develop the skills and motivation to be successfully engaged
in political parties, and parties should be encouraged to create space for youth. Affirmative
action measures such as youth and women’s quotas and party youth wings can help move
these processes forward.

Political parties could do more to encourage youth to run for office, and could consider
nominating younger candidates for provincial/state elections and municipal elections. They
could also advocate to have the legal age to run for office these levels of political office
lowered to accommodate younger people.