ETHIOPIA: Opposition parties seek injunction in Sunday polls

ADDIS ABABA, 19 Aug 2005 (IRIN) - Ethiopia's main opposition began legal action on Friday against the election board to suspend re-runs of polls in 31 constituencies, officials said.

The vice chairman of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy, Berhanu Nega, said lawyers had filed an injunction at the federal high court to halt the poll. They want the re-elections -scheduled for Sunday - to be put on hold until they have seen documents from the election board explaining why re-runs are taking place.

Twenty of the re-elections came as a result of complaints made by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), while the remaining 11 were due to complaints by opposition parties.

Ethiopia's national election has been mired in allegations of fraud since the country went to the polls on 15 May. According to human rights groups, security forces gunned down at least 40 people involved in demonstrations against alleged electoral fraud.

The ruling EPRDF won 296 seats in the 547-member body, and its allied parties won 22 seats. The opposition won 161 seats, up from just 12 in the preceding parliament.

The deputy head of the election board, Tesfaye Mengesha, said the board was prepared to release details on why re-runs were being held.

"The election board had to decide on the decision of the complaints panel following investigations," he said. "At that time we were working on the documents so we could not release them."

"The board has now decided to hold re-runs based on those investigations and now we are ready to give them any document on the investigations and why we are having re-elections," he added.

Meanwhile, the Ethiopian Human Rights Council has called for compensation to be paid to the families of victims allegedly killed by security forces during post-election protests.

The executive secretary of the independent council, Adam Melaku, also said they now had evidence that 42 people were killed by security forces during the protests. The government has put the death toll at 26.

"These families should receive financial compensation from the government because the security forces have acted illegally," he said.

[ENDS]