Politician Joseph Nur says the pink card are stolen voter cards
Three opposition parties in Ethiopia say they will boycott the forthcoming election in the Somali region.
They say their supporters have been harassed and thousands of voter cards stolen. Election officials have denied the accusations.
The vote is being held later than the rest of Ethiopia, which voted in May, due to security fears and problems reaching the Somali region's nomads.
The ruling party has already retained its majority in parliament.
"After observing the situation... we have all decided to boycott the election in the region in order to save our people from a disastrous fate," said a joint statement by the Western Somalia Democratic party, the Coalition of Somali Democratic Forces and Dall-Wabi People's Democratic Movement.
Joseph Nur, vice chair of the Western Somali Democratic Party, said: "At least 10,000 voter cards have been stolen and many are on sale in local markets."
The Somali-based parties also accuse officials from the National Election Board of colluding with the government.
Voters in the 23 Somali constituencies are due to go to the polls on 21 August, along with voters in 32 other constituencies where irregularities were found.
At least five people were killed in grenade attacks in the Somali region last month, which have been linked to electoral tensions.
Here we go again . Woyane bandits caught red handed stealing, lying, intimidating, harassing the poor people and cheating in the Somali region. Do these people have any shame at all? They are coming to the end of the road and they are heading down the cliff face. the sooner this happens the better.
What a tragedy, our beloved country Ethiopia is ruled by a bunch of looters. What a shame. One after another their crime never ends. Wow! Fourteen years with these people? It is tragic, indeed. God help us! Not five more years of this mess.
