Over 1 million people in the capital Addis Ababa on Saturday expressed their support for the Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) in a rally organized by the ruling party.

While addressing the rally, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi urged his supporters to vote for the EPRDF and contribute their share for the peaceful completion of the May 15 national elections.

People at the rally chanted slogans such as "the future is bright with EPRDF," "EPRDF is the basis for peace, development and democracy," "we will punish destructive forces with our votes," and "we will not give our elections to be hampered by Interahamwe, " among others.

Meles, also EPRDF chairman, urged Ethiopians not to vote for the opposition, saying they were promoting divisive ideologies similar to those of the Interahamwe ethnic Hutu militias who massacred hundreds of thousands of minority Tutsis and Hutu moderates during the 1994 Rwanda genocide.

The Interahamwe, meaning "those who stand together" in Kinyarwanda, was the largest of the militias formed by the Hutu ethnic majority of Rwanda and was responsible for many of the deaths in the Rwanda genocide.

Opposition parties have been campaigning to change the constitution to remove an article which grants the right for any of the nine ethnically-based federal states that make up Ethiopia to secede, saying it undermines unity.

Meles said his party saved the country from disintegration when it introduced the provision after ousting Mengistu Haile Mariam in 1991, warning that removing the right to secession would lead to ethnic tensions among Ethiopia's dozens of tribes.

He told journalists after the demonstration that if elected, the EPRDF would further consolidate the victories and the achievements gained in the area of peace, democracy and development during the next five years.

He said he has full confidence that the ruling party would bring about sustainable development and democracy unseen in Ethiopia's history by tackling the problems encountered so far.

More than 25 million of Ethiopia's 71 million people have registered to vote in the upcoming elections. Some 35 political parties will vie for seats in the 547-seat Council of People's Representatives.

Voters will also elect representatives in nine regional state parliaments that appoint members of the 112-seat Council of the Federation, the upper house. The governing party and affiliated parties hold 519 of the current 547 seats in the federal parliament.