July 27, 2010 -- Ethiopia is turning into a one party state under the ruling EPRDF, say opposition parties, according to news report from Capital.

The leading opposition group, Unity for Democracy and Justice (UDJ), said Ethiopia’s ruling party is emulating the Chinese style one party state model. At a press conference held on Friday, UDJ’s top leaders presented the results of a study they said they have probed the ruling party’s overwhelming win in the May 23 poll.

UDJ said a rigorous study the party’s national council discussed earlier this month revealed that while weakening others, the ruling party has bolstered its capacity following the so called Chinese model.

“In China, of every twelve eligible voters, one is a member of the communist party. The ruling EPRDF outperformed the Chinese communist party in the past five years alone by upgrading its membership by over 500 percent to reach over five million. Now of every ten eligible voters in Ethiopia, one is an EPRDF member,” the UDJ study claimed.

The UDJ said recruiting such wide membership is being conducted in a subtle manner: “The ruling party pulled members by swaying voters by various incentives and putting their livelihood at risk.”

UDJ said the opposition camp also needs to better manage itself. Failing to do so is partly to be blamed to the devastating loss it faced in the May poll. UDJ announced that it is now willing to go as far as becoming one party with other members of Medrek to form a “strong opposition front”. UDJ called on the ruling party to reverse its strategy and measures to realize “absolute control”.

Source: Capital