• "What we are seeing now is electoral authoritarianism," said Merara Gudina
• "Ruling party cadres throughout the country are jailing our potential candidates on false charges," Bulcha Demeksa
• "The code of conduct assumes a context where there will be independent administration of elections, freedom of movement, freedom of expression, no intervention by security forces," said Seye Abraha. "We want these issues discussed alongside the code of conduct, not assumed."

(AFP) A coalition of Ethiopian opposition groups accused the government Thursday of detaining nearly 200 of its members on spurious charges ahead of next year's elections.

The newly formed Forum for Democracy and Dialogue, comprising eight parties, said the arrests had been carried out in the last three months.

"EPRDF (ruling party) cadres are jailing our potential candidates. They simply plant in their homes documents related to rebel groups," Bulcha Demeksa, head of one of the coalition parties, told reporters.

Ethiopia is to hold general elections next June.

The group also said recent talks with the ruling party over poll observers, funding, access to state media as well as the electoral code have stalled due to disagreements.

"What we are seeing now is electoral authoritarianism," said Merara Gudina, another opposition party chief, adding that the government was "trying to referee and play at the same time."

Negotiations amid arrests (Reuters)

(Reuters) - A coalition of opposition parties accused the Ethiopian authorities on Thursday of arresting some of its members on trumped up charges to stop them running in an election scheduled for next May.

Eight parties have allied under the banner of the Forum for Democratic Dialogue in Ethiopia (FDDE) to contest the 2010 polls, which analysts say the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) is likely to win.

Opposition figures say they have been hamstrung by a campaign of arrests and intimidation. The EPRDF denies it.

"Ruling party cadres throughout the country are jailing our potential candidates on false charges," Bulcha Demeksa, leader of the Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement, one of the parties in the opposition coalition, told reporters in Addis Ababa.

"We want to negotiate with the government and ask them to stop arresting and jailing our potential candidates."

The parties that make up the alliance hold just 80 of parliament's 547 seats, but still represent the most significant opposition to a government that is a close ally of Washington.

Bereket Simon, the Ethiopian government's head of information, told Reuters that since none of the parties had yet named their candidates, the opposition's claims were baseless. "Nobody is being jailed for being a politician," he said.

Several armed groups oppose the government in the huge Horn of Africa nation of more than eighty ethnicities. Nine men were convicted for between 10 and 17 years on Thursday for raising money and buying weapons for Oromo Liberation Front (OLF).

The OLF has been fighting for independence for the southern Oromo region since 1973 and is accused of bombing Addis Ababa numerous times since then. But the FDDE says the rebels are used as an excuse to arrest opposition politicians.

"The authorities plant documents in potential politicians' houses, trying to relate them to rebel groups like the OLF or the ONLF," Bulcha said. "They are simply potential candidates. This may sound bizarre but this is the truth."

• TALKS WALK-OUT

Ethiopia's last elections in 2005 were hailed as the country's first fully democratic polls, but they ended in bloodshed after the government declared victory and the opposition said the result had been rigged. Police and soldiers killed about 200 people who took to the streets in protest.

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi accused the demonstrators of trying to topple his government, and more than 100 opposition leaders, journalists and aid workers were later jailed.

(Image: Siye Abraha)

Meles has set up talks with the opposition about drawing up a code of conduct for next year. But the FDDE said on Thursday that its members had walked out of discussions.

 "The code of conduct assumes a context where there will be independent administration of elections, freedom of movement, freedom of expression, no intervention by security forces," said Seye Abraha, a former defence minister who is now in the FDDE.

"We want these issues discussed alongside the code of conduct, not assumed."

• FDD- MEDREK member parties and individuals

1. Oromo People's Congress (OPC)
2. Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement (OFDM)
3. Unity for Democracy and Justice (UDJ)
4. Arena Tigray for Democracy and Sovereignty (Arena)
5. Somali Democratic Alliance Forces (SDAF)
6. Ethiopian Social Democratic party (ESDP)
7. Ethiopian Democratic Unity Movement (EDUM) 
8. Southern Ethiopia Peoples' Democratic Coalition (SEPDC)
9. Former Defense Minister Siye Abraha
10. Former President Dr. Negasso Gidada