Dublin, Ireland ? A general election hasn’t been declared yet, but politicians are already doing battle  on the envelopes of Ireland.

Opposition parties on Friday decried an unprecedented deal between Ireland’s biggest political party, Fianna Fail, and the national postal service that has the post office putting Fianna Fail advertisements on the envelopes of some of the letters it delivers.

The party last month paid $8,300 to An Post for it to include slogans such as “Fianna Fail, the Republican Party, Prosperity, Progress, Peace” or “Securing the Future” in its cancellation mark  the ink mark it places on the envelope to show it has been processed.

“This makes Ireland look like a one-party junta rather than a democracy,” said Charlie Flanagan, chairman of rival Fine Gael.

Fianna Fail, whose leader Prime Minister Bertie Ahern is widely expected to call a general election for May, paid for the right to have most stamped letters canceled with a pro-party message through March and reserved the right to do the same through April and May.

The ads are printed only on stamped mail that goes through An Post’s two automated processing centers, according to spokeswoman Anna McHugh.

Presorted and pre-stamped business mail is excluded. This kind of mail accounts for about 80 percent of the 4 million items handled per day. That still leaves half a million letters a day with the pro-Fianna Fail messages.

Fine Gael party headquarters has its own postage stamper, but individual lawmakers generally use adhesive stamps on their mail, and thus will be getting the Fianna Fail plug on their campaign literature.

The campaign annoys even some traditional party supporters.

“My letters are my private property. I pay An Post to deliver them safely, but they have no right to abuse my private property in this way,” said Pat McGrath, a car salesman. He’s often voted Fianna Fail but is considering not doing so this time, he said, “simply because of the sheer arrogance.”

Joe Duffy’s afternoon talk show on state-run RTE radio was inundated Friday by callers with tales of rebellion. Many wrongly presumed the sender was endorsing Fianna Fail.

Some callers say they are now writing “I don’t vote for” on the upper corners of their letters. One forwarded to Duffy’s office had the Fianna Fail ad slogan amended to “Corruption, Scandal, Abuse of Power.”