Ethiopian opposition says govt blocking rallies

Sept 7, 2005 (ADDIS ABABA) — Ethiopia’s main opposition group said Wednesday that local administrators had stopped it from holding rallies in five urban centers, including the capital Addis Ababa.

The Coalition for Unity and Democracy had scheduled rallies in Addis Ababa and towns in Ethiopia’s north, northeast and south Sunday to find out from supporters whether it should take up its seats in the newly elected parliament, said Gizachew Shiferaw, a member of the Coalition’s executive committee.

Gizachew said that local administrators told them they couldn’t hold the rallies because the towns didn’t enough officers to police the events.

An official of the Addis Ababa City Administration said that they didn’t ban the rally in the capital city, but rather they stopped it when a town hall meeting the opposition organized became chaotic, resulting in property damage.

Monday, the National Electoral Board declared Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front the official winner of May 15 parliamentary elections that were fraught with allegations of election rigging and post-polls violence. Opposition parties argue they were robbed of victory.

The results give Meles’s party control of 60% of the 547-seat parliament, or 327 seats, enough to form the next government. The results gave opposition parties 174 seats – a substantial improvement over the 12 that they won in the previous 2000 elections.

Human rights groups say security forces killed 42 people when in June they fired on protesters angered by allegations of election fraud.

(AP/ST)