Ethiopian opposition renews threat to reject election results

ADDIS ABABA, May 15 (AFP) — Ethiopia’s two main opposition groups renewed threats to reject the results of Sunday’s election, insisting widespread fraud and intimidation was rampant despite doubts from international observers.

Ethiopian opposition leader for the Coalition of Unity and Democracy (CUD) Hailu shawel, casts his vote at a polling station in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa May 15, 2005. (Reuters).

The leaders of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) and the United Ethiopian Democratic Forces (UEDF) said none of their concerns about mass arrests of their activists and alleged vote rigging had been addressed and that they would not accept the official vote count unless they were.

CUD leader chairman Hailu Shawl was adamant that abuses had and were occurring and said he had already made up his mind to vote for his group to reject the results.

“There is a very, very high possibility for my party to reject the results of the poll,” he told AFP. “I have made my decision but now the party has to decide.”

The CUD leadership was meeting Sunday evening in a bid to agree on a common strategy forward, officials said.

Hailu, who runs one of four parties in the CUD, insisted there had been wide-scale irregularities in the election even though the two main foreign observer missions said they had been unable to confirm the opposition claims.

“There is massive corruption, people are talking about Addis Ababa but I am talking about the whole country,” he said, echoing comments by UEDF leader Beyene Petros.

“The situation in Addis Ababa may be okay but not outside,” Beyene said. “In much of the countryside, we don’t think we’ll accept the results of the polls, but we haven’t made our final statement yet.”

“There are more and more polling stations where we have no reason to accept the results,” he told AFP.

“We are not going to accept the results of the polls if the government continues to arrest our people and prevents them from observing the elections,” said Beyene whose UEDF represents 14 parties, nine of which are based overseas.

On the eve of the election, the UEDF and CUD accused the government of detaining hundreds of their poll monitors in recent days.

They said the arrests were part of a campaign of harrassment and intimidation by the ruling party and threatened to reject the election results unless the observers were released and allowed to do their jobs.

The government dismissed the accusations as politically motivated lies and as polling was wrapping up on Sunday foreign observers from the European Union and US-based Carter Center said they had not been able to verify the claims.

Instead, they said the most serious problems were lengthy lines and extended waits encountered by voters who overwhelmed under-equipped polling stations.