Ethiopia opposition CUD MPs take seats in parliament

Dec 10, 2005 (ADDIS ABABA) — Opposition Coalition for Unity and democracy (CUD) Members of parliament, have recently started taking seats as party leaders remain in prison awaiting possible charges of “treason” from the Federal prosecutor.

Coalition of Unity and Democracy (CUD), Ethiopia’s largest opposition group won 109 seats in the 547-seat parliament. Its legislators who announced a boycott of parliament in October were threatened with arrest and stripped of their immunity.

The public relations office of the House of Peoples’ Representatives (HPR) told The Reporter that 63 elected members of CUD have formally joined parliament by late Thursday.

Not less than 28 elected members of the All-Ethiopia Unity Party (AEUP), of which CUD’s Eng. Hailu Shawel is a Chairman, and 21 elected members of the Ethiopian Democratic Unity Party-Medin (EDUP-Medhin) have reported to parliament. Eight elected members from the Rainbow Movement for Social Justice and Democracy had taken their seats in the new parliament.

Two elected members of AEUP/CUD, who wanted to remain anonymous, told The Reporter that they took their seats not to deliberately violate their party’s recent decision to boycot parliament but out of constant harassment and threats by government security personnel in plain clothes.

Meanwhile, an elected member of EDUP-Medhin, who won the May 15 elections by beating former Speaker of the House, Dawit Yohannis, in woreda 01/09 of the metropolis, was beaten up by unknown individuals last Tuesday.

Mesfin Mengistu took his seat in parliament earlier on the same day when the ordinary session of the House formally nominated members of the inquiry commission into the killings in Addis and other towns of the country as election-related clashes broke out between the police and civilian protestors.

(The Reporter/ST)