Zenawi and his cadres have started handing out cash and promises of jobs, land and other benefits to the people of the Ogaden and the surrounding Somali region to intice them into voting Woyane/EPRDF. The mindless tyrant Zenawi, has even promised to allow the essation of the region from Ethiopia if he is elected.
Members of three local opposition groups and local candidates representing the CUD have been targets of intimidation and beatings by the regimes cadres, and they been forced to withdraw from the election as a result of threats to their lives they have received.