/ 19 June 2000

RULING COALITION WINS ETHIOPIAN ELECTIONS

ETHIOPIA’s electoral commission confirmed on Sunday the ruling coalition Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary and Democratic Front’s win in general elections held May 14. Eight Ethiopian opposition parties had branded the country’s May 14 general election a “farce” and demanded it be rerun. The coalition won 472 out of 522 seats in the Chamber of Representatives of the Peoples of Ethiopia, the federal legislative assembly. The opposition, which had boycotted the first general elections in May 1995, obtained only 28 seats this time. Eight independent candidates were elected.