adem abebe's program officer at the international institute for democracy.arm welcome to you all. samuel, let me start with you. how have people in ethiopia viewed this election? do they actually see this as the beginning of a real transition to democracy? samuel: i woke up just after 5:00 to get to the polls. the line was supposed to start at 6:00. my polling station -- i can't vote because i don't have ethiopianitizenship, but the line was long. people were excited. it's not going to be the most perfect election, but ethiopia has never known an election that is perfect. people want to express ideas. they wan to highlight issues they care about. i saw excitement among the many people i met today and throughout the day. mohammed: adem, you wrote a piece recently that many saw elections as a harbinger of success of the transition. do you feel the same? adem: for a lot of people, there is still hope that elections will usher in better political dispensation. at the same time, they were not as they were hoped to be, primarily for two reasons. one, the unfolding