ADDIS ABABA – A top Ethiopian opposition leader of the Oromo National Congress (ONC) on Saturday accused the ruling party of sending armed men to take over and vandalize party headquarters in the Ethiopian capital.

ONC Chairman Dr Merera Gudina, whose party candidates defeated senior government officials Defense Minister Abadula Gemeda and Oromia Region President Junedin Sado in the May election, blamed the ruling party for the illegal takeover of his party offices.

“ONC, which is a coalition partner of United Ethiopian Democratic Forces (UEDF), swept parliamentary seats from Borana in southern Ethiopia to Central Shoa in the hinterland, from the peripheries of eastern Hararghe to the western fringes of Wollega,” said Dr. Merera, “and this has been unpalatable to the ruling party.”

Dr. Merera, who is president of UEDF as well, told VOA, “the ruling party used two junior ONC deserters to carry out acts of vandalizing office documents and equipment.”

“Police ignored repeated calls for help, and now the offices are in the hands of the armed men, who took keys from a guard who was threatened with gunshots,” ONC deputy Urbana Lalissa told VOA from Addis Ababa. Mr. Urbana accused the ruling party’s Oromo People’s Democratic Organization (OPDO), which conceded huge losses to ONC in the last election, of conspiring in the takeover of ONC offices. “When the two guys were firing shots on ONC premises, OPDO officials were watching from nearby how their plot was going on.”

UEDF and the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD), the leading opposition party which is widely believed to have swept more seats than the incumbent ruling party, are considering boycotting the parliament after their appeals for investigations into vote riggings turned over more seats to the ruling party in election re-runs boycotted by the opposition.

The European Union last week cited massive election fraud, thus sending Meles for a furious, marathon letter-writing odyssey punctuated with bouts of profanities against EU Election Observation Group leader, The Honorable Madam Ana Gomez. The EU in Brussels has defended Ms. Ana Gomez’s preliminary report as “balanced and impartial.”

In the middle of the tug-of-war between Meles and the European Union, which is Ethiopia’s major donor, the ruling party has forced the postponement of a CUD public meeting due for Sunday in Addis Ababa. CUD spokesman Dr. Hailu Araia said growing insecurity on the part of the ruling party was probably responsible for creating new guidelines which prompted the disruption of an already scheduled public meeting.

Meanwhile the national TV controlled by Bereket Simon, spokesman of the ruling EPRDF party, has speeded up broadcasting highly malicious programs that bedevil opposition leaders as “power-hungry” remnants of the Derg dictatorship.

“Old TV footages are being dug up and patched together to project opposition leaders as former Derg officials, and thereby target them as a threat to the nation,” one observer said. “The Ethiopian people have said ‘enough is enough! And this tells us that Ethiopia is virtually ready for a post-Meles era.”

(Source: Ethiomedia; September 3, 2005)