• Ethiopia's ruling party has agreed on new rules for the 2010 election with its own creation, according to Dr. Berhanu Nega's statement to VOA. He said the Ethiopian government created opposition parties before it staged pre-election activities with them.
• Two of the ruling party allies are the EDP and the reformed CUD. Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's ruling party designed its own version of opposition parties, including by awarding the former CUD name to its ally Ayale Chamiso after putting the real CUD leader Judge Birtukan Mideksa in prison. Nearly all of the 81 opposition parties registered by the national election board consist of local, ethnic, regional and national parties who are members or affiliates of the EPRDF ruling party. 

(VOA) Berhanu Nega, a former leader of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) and now a member of the Ginbot 7 said Ethiopia is not a conducive country for democracy.

“All the issues that make a democratic election do not exist in Ethiopia at this time, starting from the independence of the election board, the independence of the military and the police, judiciary all are in the pocket of the ruling class. And in the absence of a fair and leveled playing ground there is no meaning in an election,” he said.

Nega said the 2010 election will most likely be similar to the 2008 local election when he said Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s ruling party won 99 point nine percent of the vote.

He said two of the opposition parties that reportedly agreed on the new rules for next year’s election were created by the government.

“You know there are three parties who participated in this. Two of them are the parties created by the ruling party. So these are not serious parties. This is just simply to show to the gullible international community that there is some election taking place. But nobody in Ethiopia is taking it seriously at all,” he said.

• READ FULL REPORT: VOA

Ethiopian parties agree rules for 2010 polls (AFP)

"The agreement was reached on consensus by all participants after two months of negotiations," said Ayalew Chamiso, head of the opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy party (CUD).

• READ FULL REPORT: AFP