The number of women in leadership is growing every day. Birtukan Mideksa is one of the bravest women in Ethiopia who will never back down to anything. Her story is inspiring to other women who would love to be like her. As Ethiopia has started its polling process, Birtukan Mideksa is the current chairperson of the NEBE (National Election Board of Ethiopia). From a political prisoner to the chairperson of Ethiopia’s National Election Board.
Birtukan’s Personal Life and Education
Birtukan Mideksa was born in Addis Ababa. She went to Miazia 23 missionary elementary school and then Yekatit 12 secondary school, also called Etege Menen School, after that. She went to Addis Ababa University after graduating from secondary school and earned a Bachelor of Laws degree. Birtukan graduated from Harvard University with a Master of Arts in Public Administration in 2014. She has a daughter named Haale Mideksa, who was born in the year 2005.
Her Professional Career
Birtukan began her judicial career as an associate judge. She was later appointed as a judge to the federal first instant court’s 3rd District court. In July 2002, Birtukan Mideksa presided over a high-profile case involving former TPLF and Ministry of Defense (Ethiopia) top official Siye Abraha, who was charged with corruption. She released the defendant on bail, only to be surprised minutes later when government agents apprehended Siye as he walked out of court with his family and allies.
Following Siye’s re-arrest, government security officials threatened and intimidated Birtukan Mideksa. She then resigned from the federal court system and established her own law firm. From late 2003-2005, she worked as a lawyer.
Birtukan’s Political Career
Birtukan decided to join a political party to help bring about change, including the recognition of the rule of law and full respect for the constitution’s implementation. She became a member of Rainbow Ethiopia: Movement for Democracy and Social Justice, and later the CUD (Coalition for Unity and Democracy).
Her party won more than a third of the seats in the 2005 election. Members of the party believed that, if not for the voting and counting irregularities, they would have won even more seats. Following the polls, the ruling party started rounding up opposition party leaders, including Mideksa, whom the authorities found guilty of attempting to overthrow the constitutional order and sentenced to life in prison. She was pardoned in 2007 after lengthy negotiations and serving more than a year (18 months) in prison alongside other opposition leaders.
Mideksa later formed UDJ (Unity for Democracy and Justice) based on the same principles that guided CUD. The need for a new party name arose due to the ruling party’s election commission awarding a splinter group from CUD, aka Kinijit.
The police arrested Birtukan again on December 28th, 2008. The court revoked her pardon in 2007 and sentenced her to life in prison. According to Human Rights Watch, people politically motivated the arrest. The Ethiopian government claimed that her pardon was conditional on an apology for her crimes and that it had ordered her re-arrest after hearing reports that Birtukan had publicly denied apologizing for her actions or requesting a pardon.
Birtukan, who the BBC described as one of the younger and more charismatic leaders of the coalition which did so well against the ruling party in the 2005 elections, has become even more of a heroine, attracting widespread sympathy as a single mother separated from her daughter since her apprehension.
Exile in the United States
Birtukan got out of prison on October 6th, 2010. According to government spokesman Shimeles Kemal, Birtukan requested a pardon in October of the same year, and the justice ministry cited a statement in which she expressed regret for denying her 2007 pardon. Birtukan resigned from politics in the following year (2011) and moved to the US to study at Harvard.
She received the Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellowship from the National Endowment for Democracy, which permitted her to spend 5 months in Washington, D.C., studying the principles of democracy.
Her return to Ethiopia
Birtukan returned to Ethiopia in November 2018, encouraged by the political reforms that PM Abiy Ahmed initiated in April 2018. On November 23rd, 2018, election officials elected and swore in Birtukan as the chairperson of Ethiopia’s National Election Board.
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