Ethiopia Elections Board confirms ruling party killed 2 opposition members

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, Feb 22, 2005 (AP) — Ethiopia’s elections body on Tuesday confirmed the ruling party killed two opposition members but said claims of other attacks could not be verified.

The National Elections Board was investigating allegations by an opposition coalition that five of its members had been killed and 22 injured in attacks by ruling party members earlier this year.

The board found that some members of the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front have killed two opposition members, but has not been able to investigate other opposition claims for lack of evidence, Chairman Kemal Bedri said.

Kemal told reporters that the ruling party members responsible for the killings are in prison awaiting trial.

Kemal said that if there is widespread election-related violence then the board would postpone the elections.

Government spokesman Zemedkun Teckle said that the government wants free and fair elections and will ensure that no opposition member is harassed in the run-up to national elections set for May 15.

The general elections will be only the third democratic ballot in Ethiopia’s history, the only African country not to be colonized. The previous elections have been convincingly won by the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front.

More than 25 million of Ethiopia’s 70 million people have registered to vote. Voter registration continues until the end of February.