• According to a report by the private newspaper Capital Ethiopia, the former opposition leader MP Lidetu Ayalew is not running for the Addis Ababa (Finfinne) constituency anymore. Mr. Lidetu has lost support among the Ethiopian population, particularly in the urban, after he sided with Prime Minister Meles Zenawi during critical periods of the 2005 post election when the then CUD (now UDJ) opposition party leaders were imprisoned. The overwhelming majority of Addis Ababa citizens support the opposition leader Judge Birtukan Mideksa, who remains in prison for denying she accepted blame for the 2005 massacre of over 200 people by Zenawi's private security. 

(Capital Ethiopia)There is now only 105 days to go to the 2010 National Elections polling day. This is the time to officially announce in which constituency candidates will run for a seat.

The wheeling and dealing of the biggest opposition group, the Forum for Democratic Dialogue in Ethiopia, is also proving complicated.

Social democrats, such as Professor Beyene Petros, has compromised on long standing ideals that won them parliament seats in the last poll during negotiations of the formation of the forum, which later declared its semi program embracing liberal ideals. The full candidate list that will compete for the 23 seats Addis Ababa's electorate vote for is sealed. The list contains 15 members from Birtukan Midekssa's party, Unity for Democracy and Justice (UDJ.) Like in Addis Ababa, the full list of 547 candidates isn't expected to be dominated by one party. Gebru Asrat who brought his Arena Tigray for Democracy and Sovereignty on board with the FORUM says no quota approach will be applied. Only as per the criteria would candidates be selected from the eight groups all packed under one umbrella, at least up until the election, according to the party's top voice.

Lidetu - is he running from or towards fierce competition?

Lidetu Ayalew, who leads the moderate opposition group Ethiopian Democratic Party, is among a very few prominent actors of the 2005 elections who are now in parliament. MP Lidetu made a surprising announcement of a decision to abandon his Addis Ababa constituency, which he won by running against the former Education Minister Genet Zewide in 2005.

Lidetu said he would run for parliament at the Bugena woreda, in Amhara state, where he was born.

As per Ethiopia's electoral law any candidate can run to represent the area if they lived or worked in the constituency for two years full time or the constituency is their place of birth. The latter criterion qualifies Lidetu to be a candidate in Bugena whose representation at the federal parliament is currently being filled by a senior government figure, minister Bereket Simon.

• Read More at Capital Ethiopia