Ethiopia opposition says food aid kept from members

By Barry Malone

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Ethiopian opposition parties said on Wednesday that their members were being refused food aid to force them to join the ruling party before national elections are held in May next year.

The Ethiopian government says 6.2 million people will need emergency food this year and has appealed to the international community for help.

Another 7 million Ethiopians are part of a long-running food-for-work scheme, which means more than 13 million of the country's 80 million people rely on aid to survive.

"Our members can't get on the food-for-work scheme," Gebru Asrat, spokesman for the opposition coalition Medrek, told Reuters. "Only ruling party members can now join the programme, so it forces desperate people to leave the opposition."

People who joined the ruling party would not be able to work for the opposition or stand as opposition candidates.

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's administration rejected the opposition complaint.

"It's simply a ridiculous and outrageous thing to say," Bereket Simon, government head of information, told Reuters.

He said the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) party had fewer than half the number of people currently enrolled in the food-for-work scheme.