Ethiopian vote probe drama

2005-07-08 09:38

Addis Ababa - Ethiopia's main opposition party, the Coalition for National Unity (CUD) has pulled out of a joint team investigating alleged fraud in disputed parliamentary elections, officials said on Friday.

CUD spokesperson Debebe Eshetu said late on Thursday that the party had withdrawn from the national election board panel due to threats against its members in various parts of the country following post-election violence in which at least 37 people were killed last month.

"There is no need for CUD to be part of the team and it is withdrawing" Debebe told AFP.

But the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE), which is due on Friday to release official results from 250 to 300 of the 524 constituencies contested in the election on May 15, said it was aware only that the CUD had threatened to pull out.

"They have threatened to pull out from the investigation, (it is) an unfortunate development for the election process," NEBE spokesman Getahun Amogne said.

"The board has made it clear that if their representatives have any reservation or disagreement, they could register their differences in the team's minutes, which the board would review for its final decision," he added.

The CUD claims that its members in the panel have been harassed since June 30 when NEBE sent out teams to investigate allegations of fraud in 135 constituencies.

"Houses of witnesses who testified in favour of the CUD in northern Ethiopia have been burnt down and the land of peasants has been confiscated by government officials," Debebe said.

"In the name of security checks, we have been harassed inside our hotel rooms," another CUD member said.

Ethiopia's Information Minister Bereket Simon dismissed the allegations out of hand as "a mere excuse for the opposition to shy away from the facts on the ground."

- AFP