Ethiopia’s ruling party, opposition to sign truce pact over election period

ADDIS ABABA, May 11 (AFP) — Rival parties in Ethiopia on Wednesday announced an agreement to maintain peace during voting day in Sunday’s general elections, amid accusations of plots to cause unrest, officials said.

“In order to ensure that the process of the elections is smooth, we have agreed to a sign a non-violence pact,” Information Minister Barakat Simone told reporters here.

Barakat, also the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front’s (EPRDF) head of elections, said donors and the opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) had expressed fears of possible anarchy.

CUD official Hailu Araya, welcomed the deal, which will be signed on Thursday, but urged the ruling party to respect terms of the agreement.

“CUD believes that signing this non-violence pact is of great importance to the party and its members,” Hailu said.

“Our concern is its implementation because recently, we signed a code of conduct, but there was no change at the grassroot. Arrest and intimidation were continued,” he said.

Two weeks ago, both sides signed an accord that stipulated how both sides would behave during the campaign period, which is due end officially early Friday.

Last week, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi accused the opposition of plotting to spark anarchy in the vast Horn of Africa nation, which is set to vote in the third multiparty elections on May 15, the first to be monitored by international observers.

CUD, which has often complained of intimidation from ruling party officials, rejected the claims.

Ana Gomez, the head of European Union (EU) observer delegation has raised a number of concerns about the conduct of the campaign for Sunday’s elections, notably government accusations that the opposition is promoting ethnic hatred that could flare into violence similar to what Rwanda saw in its 1994 genocide.

The EU has deployed some 160 observers throughout Ethiopia and in an interview with AFP on Monday, Gomez said her team had also reported incidents of harassment and intimidation, including physical assaults, against opposition candidates and supporters.