Ethiopians vote Sunday in the first election since a disputed 2005 poll ended in violence and strained the African nation's relations with the West. Ludger Schadomsky, head of DW's Ethiopian service, gauges the mood.

The oversized campaign image of a yellow clock on the edge of Addis Ababa's central Meskel Square looks a bit forlorn. Perhaps the party strategists of the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) should have erected the cut-out, which shows the clock's dial as a beehive with a queen bee in the center, near the video screens where the residents of the capital Addis Ababa usually watch soccer.
But not everyone thinks the electoral gimmick works. “They should have instead erected a functioning clock for us,” one Ethiopian commentator wrote.
But what's more surprising is that the EPRDF's clock image shows the time as 10:10. That's despite the fact that everybody, including members of the ruling party, know that it's closing in on zero hour for Ethiopia.
Ever since a disputed election in 2005 ended in violence - 200 people were killed in street riots and opposition leaders and journalists were jailed - the country located on the Horn of Africa has lost a good deal of credibility.
(Source : Deutsche Welle)