Ethiopian opposition packs no punch as elections loom

ADDIS ABABA, Tuesday

When Ethiopia’s opposition leaders were freed from jail in 2007, the three most prominent were hailed by fanatical supporters as leaders-in-waiting for sub-Saharan Africa’s second most populous nation.

Now, Ms Birtukan Mideksa sits in a prison cell, Mr Berhanu Nega is exiled in the United States, convicted in absentia of plotting a coup, and Mr Hailu Shawel only recently re-appeared in public.

That leaves many Ethiopians wondering where a challenge to the almost 20-year-old government of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi could come from when the country holds elections next May for the first time since a disputed 2005 poll ended in violence.

Despite accusations of a crackdown on dissent, diplomats in the capital say the West would be comfortable with Mr Meles staying on — as long as he remains a loyal ally in the volatile Horn of Africa and liberalises his potentially huge economy.

Secular Ethiopia is Washington’s key supporter in the region and sent troops into neighbouring Somalia in 2006 to oust an Islamist group which had seized the capital.
“Most Western governments want Meles to continue because there is no alternative in the opposition,” said one diplomat in Addis Ababa who did not want to be named. “As long as the elections are semi-democratic, they’ll probably stay quiet, keep giving aid, hope for liberalisation of the economy and leave full democracy for later,” he said.

Foreign investors, who are showing interest in exporting commodities and exploring Ethiopia for probable oil and gas deposits, want stability, analysts say. If the opposition takes power, the future would be uncertain and investments delayed as foreign governments and lenders jostle for influence.

Rich nations are also hoping the government will relinquish control of its potentially lucrative telecommunications and banking industries in a nation of more than 80 million people.

Eight opposition parties are trying to register as a coalition to contest the polls under the name Medrek, or the Forum, while retaining their own structures and leadership.

But most people in the country, and even some opposition leaders, agree that Mr Meles’ ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front will easily win in 2010. The opposition says this is because candidates are routinely intimidated and jailed. The government says the opposition parties make the accusations because they know they have no chance of victory and want to discredit the poll.

“The Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front has done its best to weaken the opposition in view of the 2010 elections,” Mr Rene Lefort, an Ethiopia analyst, told Reuters. “Fear of repression is the main factor which refrains most opposition members from campaigning actively.”

Birtukan, Berhanu and Hailu, leaders of a previous opposition coalition, were jailed in 2005 with other figures after they were convicted of inciting supporters to march on state buildings when the government declared victory.

About 200 protesters were killed by police and soldiers on the streets of the capital in that unrest. Ethiopia has never had a peaceful transition of power. Mr Meles himself took over in 1991 after a rebel group led by him and others overthrew a brutal communist regime.

The opposition leaders were pardoned and released in 2007, along with some journalists and aid workers, on condition they take responsibility for the violence. But Ms Birtukan, a popular 36-year-old single mother, was jailed for life last December after denying she had accepted blame for the 2005 bloodshed. Authorities said that violated the terms of her pardon.

The government has said it will invite international election observers, most likely from the European Union, and last week agreed a “code of conduct” for next year’s elections with three parliamentary opposition parties.