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Prayer is crucial for Ethiopia as another opposition party announced Wednesday, April 16, 2008 that they would boycott the African nation’s second round of local elections due to rigging and intimidation, the Associated Press (AP) reported. Held Sunday, April 13, 2008, the first round of elections covered nearly 4 million positions from local councils to many of the seats in parliament, the BBC reported. Further elections will be held Sunday, April 20, 2008.

Last week, the United Ethiopian Democratic Forces, the nation’s largest opposition group, also pulled their 6,000 candidates out of the election, claiming that some 14,000 of their candidates had been forced to drop out, the AP reported. Meanwhile, evangelicals in Ethiopia, who may account for as much as 20 percent of the population, face severe persecution, Mission Network News reported. Attacks against Christians have risen in some Muslim-dominated areas as militants began purging Christian Believers.

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Emergency Prayer Alert-Ethiopia

Opposition parties boycott volatile African’s nation elections

WIN PRAYER ALERT

Prayer is crucial for Ethiopia as another opposition party announced Wednesday, April 16, 2008 that they would boycott the African nation’s second round of local elections due to rigging and intimidation, the Associated Press (AP) reported.

Held Sunday, April 13, 2008, the first round of elections covered nearly 4 million positions from local councils to many of the seats in parliament, the BBC reported. Further elections will be held Sunday, April 20, 2008.

Last week, the United Ethiopian Democratic Forces, the nation’s largest opposition group, also pulled their 6,000 candidates out of the election, claiming that some 14,000 of their candidates had been forced to drop out, the AP reported.

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s Ethiopia Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front party is expected to win, with its candidates unopposed in many places, the BBC reported.

In the last elections in 2005, candidates fighting under the banner of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy won a landslide victory in Addis Ababa, but the polls were followed by violent protests.

Meanwhile, evangelicals in Ethiopia, who may account for as much as 20 percent of the population, face severe persecution, Mission Network News reported.

Attacks against Christians have risen in some Muslim-dominated areas as militants began purging Christian Believers, including an incident in March in the town of Nensabo.

“A group of radical Muslims determined to rid their area of the ‘shame of Christianity’ came against these Believers as they were gathered for worship,” Voice of the Martyrs’ Todd Nettleton said. “At least two Christians were killed, and literally dozens were wounded.”

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Sourced: the Associated Press, BBC, Mission Network News, Voice of the Martyrs, Christian Solidarity Worldwide

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