AEuropean Union exploratory team is visiting Ethiopia to determinewhether to send an observer mission to monitor national elections inMay. The election campaign has taken a negative turn amid questionsabout whether the vote would be fair.

A series of televised debates opened last week with a furious exchange among parties vying for seats in Ethiopia's parliament.

The ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front dominatedthe airtime, taking 67 minutes of the three-hour broadcast. Otherparties were limited to 22 minutes each.

EPRDF representative Hailemariam Dessalegn used his time to launch ablistering attack on opposition parties, accusing them of being tooweak and disorganized to govern.

Opposition leaders fired back, accusing the EPRDF of using its controlof the electoral machinery to ensure victory for itself, makingEthiopia a virtual one-party state. Merera Gudina, who represented aneight party coalition known as the Forum, tells VOA the group will usethe campaign to expose, what he calls, the government's anti-democratictactics.

"They can rule us as dictators, but not falsely portraying their imageas democrats," said Merera Gudina. "As far as they control the guns,they can rule us. But they cannot rule us by portraying that Ethiopiais enjoying democracy while we do not have any."

EPRDF representative Hailemariam says the ruling party favorsmulti-party democracy, but in a different sense than is commonlypracticed in the west.

"Our system is a multi-party system," said Hailemariam Dessalegn."Clearly a multi-party system, because we believe Ethiopia ismultinational, multi-ethnic, multilingual and multi religious, so oneparty cannot represent all these differences, so multi party system ismandatory in Ethiopia."

Hailemariam attributes much of the criticism of Ethiopia'srevolutionary democracy to a misunderstanding of the ruling party'sphilosophy.

"This is all because we do not follow the liberal democratic principleswhich the Western countries are pushing to follow," said Dessalegn."That is why everyone is fighting us, and try to somehow criticize anddisvalue whatever Ethiopia is doing."

The debate over Ethiopia's democratic credentials comes as a EuropeanUnion mission is studying whether to accept the government's invitationto monitor the election.

It appears none of the major U.S. observer groups will be coming. TheCarter Center has declined an invitation. The others, the Washingtonbased International Foundation for Electoral Systems, NationalDemocratic Institute and the International Republican Institute, werenot invited.

Thomas Vens, a member of the EU exploratory mission says the group willadvise policy makers in Brussels about whether conditions exist inEthiopia for a fair election.

"We are here as a standard practice to establish whether the conditionsare in place for such a mission to take place," said Thomas Vens. "Weare putting together facts relating to that and then a politicaldecision on that basis of that report will be made to determine whetherthat would be appropriate or not."

Another major opposition leader, Hailu Shawel of the All EthiopianUnity Party, worked with the EPRDF in drafting a code of conduct forthe election. But he refused to take part in the multi-party debate,and is increasingly disillusioned about the prospects for a fair vote.

He tells VOA any foreign observer mission would face a huge taskkeeping track of what he calls systemic election-related mischief.

"They have to admit this is a difficult job," said Hailu Shawel. "Sothey have to have everywhere people and they can't trust anybody. Notone. Not trust us, not trust EPRDF. They lie, they cheat every day. So how can they observe an election and say anything when they knowthat all these funny things are happening in Ethiopia. How? I do notthink so."

Hailu Shawel says unless there are some guarantees of a level playing field, his party may boycott the election.

"I do not want to complain after the election," said Shawel. "If thereis no effective observation, there is no election. We will be thefirst ones to say, sorry, we don't trust the process."

The other main opposition grouping, the Forum, is taking a differentapproach to a possible boycott. Leaders say they see the election notas about winning seats, but about communicating with voters andbuilding a support base.

Forum strategist Siye Abraha recalled the 2008 elections, when theopposition boycotted, allowing the EPRDF and its allies to sweepvirtually every one of more than three million local and regionalcouncil seats.

The election is set for May 23 , but opposition leaders note resultswill only be announced in late June, while global attention is focusedon World Cup Football (soccer) competition in South Africa.