The campaign trail has begun, albeit slowly and unexcitingly to the tastes of those at the gossip corridors. Nevertheless, Addis Abebans are having a hilarious take on the campaigns by different parties broadcast on the national TV, every night.

The way campaign messages are composed, the rhythms that are being played, and the manner in which those reading the messages are dressed and appear on TV have become sources of entertainment to many.

And there is a little bit of political spinning about the electoral symbol each of the 57 parties contending for political power have selected to help voters identify them.

For instance, the Revolutionary Democrats have some kind of obsession with the symbol of a "bee." Although they were thought to have taken a lesson from their electoral debacle in 2005, when their political rivals chose a "V" sign that was easily used among people, they have chosen to stick with their earlier symbol. It will remain very difficult for their supporters to use sign language during the coming few months, approaching the polling day.

What ought to be interesting is the choice the Liberal Democrats, the Ethiopian Democratic Party (EDP), have made in selecting their electoral symbol. Although different from the socialists' red rose in the European Union Parliament, the Liberal Democrats have picked a yellow flower to symbolise them. It helped little to change the views of those at the gossip corridors, should they be interested to distance themselves from recurrent allegations that their leaders have sold their souls to the Revolutionary Democrats since the 2005 elections.

Would they like to be a "flower" that would attract the "bee" to their petals, thus feeding and nurture it to blossom, or are they hatching political poison that would attract the "bee" and put it in paralysis, wonders gossip. By picking symbols that are naturally complementary to each other, do the Liberal Democrats want to send a message to the voting public that they are an indispensable source of food to the Revolutionary Democrats? Have they thought about the meaning of their selection of "yellow flower" as opposed and in relation to the "bee"?

It is ironically interesting to see that a website developed and run by their supporters, www.ethiopiandemocrats.com, run an online poll that has already given the Revolutionary Democrats an 11pc point lead over EDP's 27pc, Forum's 25pc, and AUEP's nine per cent on the question of who will win Addis Abeba's seats in the Federal Parliament in the forthcoming elections. Not coming from www.aigaforum.com, it is a bold admission of the dominance the EPRDF has in politics. 

Perhaps someone from the camp of one of the other opposition parties could tease them in one of the electoral debates, which began its debut two weeks ago.

Despite an earlier agreement by the contending parties that such debates would continue every 10 days, the latest debate on "Federalism and Decentralised Administration," one of the favourite subjects of the Revolutionary Democrats, had to be postponed from Friday, February 26, 2010, to Monday, March 1, 2010, gossip disclosed.

It was Hailemariam Desalegn, one of the negotiators for the Revolutionary Democrats, who pushed the date during a meeting on Wednesday. His reasons for his party's demand did not bare well with the other parties, particularly with Lidetu Ayalew of the Liberal Democrats, claims gossip.

Well, Hailemariam argued that his party coincidently assigned two of its cadres for the debate who were Muslims. These cadres would not want to take part in the debate on a day of Mawlid, but it was obviously clear to the others that the incumbent simply wanted to buy time to either replace those originally planned to take part in the debate, or they needed more time to prepare themselves for the debate, gossip contemplates.

Whichever was the case, it looks like the Revolutionary Democrats have so far gotten away with what they wanted. Their electoral opponents have little power to stop them, gossip observes. Suffice Hailu Shawel's defiance in declining to take part in pre-recorded electoral debates. He wants to have a town hall debate with live broadcasting to the voting public.