Separatists denounce poll in Ethiopia's Ogaden

By William Maclean

NAIROBI (Reuters) - A separatist rebel group denounced parliamentary elections to be held on Sunday in Ethiopia's southeastern ethnic Somali region, saying they would do little to end what it called the remote area's misery.

The Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), a group of ethnic Somalis fighting for independence from Ethiopia, said the elections would not help to address the needs of the impoverished Ogaden region's estimated four million people.

Most of Ethiopia voted on May 15, and preliminary results show the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) won a majority in the 547-seat assembly.

Organisers say the contest in the arid region was delayed because its inhabitants' nomadic lifestyle and general insecurity there meant organisation of polling needed more time.

"The so-called elections will occur outside of the framework of a comprehensive political settlement to the longstanding dispute between the Somalis of Ogaden and successive Ethiopian governments," said an ONLF statement received in neighbouring Kenya on Saturday.

The result would be "yet another weak and ineffective surrogate administration of the Ethiopian regime enjoying nearly zero legitimacy in the eyes of the people and presiding over continued social and economic misery".

"Freedom of assembly is habitually denied, freedom of expression punishable by detention and homegrown independent Somali media denied operating rights effectively silencing dissenting political opinion."

Government officials in Addis Ababa could not immediately be reached for comment.

The people of the Ogaden complain of neglect by the central government of the Horn of Africa nation of 70 million, dominated by former rebels from the northern province of Tigray who overthrew dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam in May 1991.

At present all the Ogaden's 23 seats are held by parties affiliated to the EPRDF. The three main opposition parties in the area last week pulled out of the polls, alleging ballot fraud and intimidation by allies of the EPRDF.

Police shot 36 people and arrested thousands in June amid unrest over alleged vote rigging in the rest of the country.

Opposition groups plan to challenge the election results in court and urged a government of national unity be formed. The EPRDF has ruled out a national unity government.

The ONLF said in some places in the Ogaden, which borders Somalia, Ethiopian military compounds had been designated as voting stations, creating what it called ample opportunity for coercion and intimidation.

Ethiopia has long blamed the ONLF for attacking government troops in the area and human rights groups say the army has retaliated by intimidating the local population.