Thousands of young Ethiopians streamed into the central square in Addis Ababa, flashing the two fingered sign for victory — the election symbol of the opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD).

Some supporters had taped banners saying “Victory over Dictatorship” and “Stand Up Speak Up” to their heads.

The May 15 elections are widely regarded as a test of democracy in Ethiopia, where opposition candidates say their supporters have been harassed, beaten and detained in the runup to the polls.

“I hope the government understands that the people are saying they want a change — not just in Addis but everywhere,” Hailu Shawel, CUD chairman told reporters before addressing the rally, which organisers said numbered two million, but witnesses put at hundreds of thousands.

Five main opposition parties and coalitions have set aside their differences to form one of the strongest alliances yet to challenge Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s 14 years in power.

Meles’ Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) is widely expected to win a third five-year term in Africa’s top coffee producer, but analysts say the ruling party’s parliamentary majority may slip under pressure from opposition candidates.

“What has the government given me? I have no job, no right to property and no freedom,” said 42-year-old labourer Kassu Kemere.

Police blocked the city centre, stopping opposition supporters from the suburbs from joining the rally, organisers said. Police officials were not immediately available for comment.

ECONOMIC GROWTH

Hailu said the CUD would focus on economic growth through political reforms and privatisation. Ethiopia is struggling to shake off the effects of centuries of feudalism followed by nearly two decades of Marxism under dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam, who was ousted in 1991.

Officials say 46 percent of Ethiopia’s 71 million people live below the poverty line, with many peasant farmers in the rural areas trapped in abject poverty.

“Our plan is to free the economy, move to free enterprise, with land ownership by the people themselves,” he said.

Critics of the government say the EPRDF have failed to tackle poverty by reforming land policies blamed for chronic food shortages.

They say the present system gives little incentive to the farmer to invest in land which is leased to him by the government.

Hailu dismissed Meles’ claim that the opposition was promoting divisive ideologies similar to those of the ethnic Hutu militias who butchered 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide.

“The opposition has no military power and does not aspire to mass murder,” he said. (Additional reporting by Tsegaye Tadesse)