Ethiopia’s ruling party has won an absolute majority in Parliament in disputed May elections and will form the country’s next government, according to final results released on Tuesday.
”According to official results, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front [EPRDF] has won 296 seats that would enable it to form the federal government,” the board said in a statement.
Ethiopia’s two main opposition groups, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) and the United Ethiopian Democratic Forces (UEDF), took 109 and 52 seats respectively in the May 15 polls, the board said.
When combined with victories by allied parties, the EPRDF will control 318 seats in the 547-member Parliament and the opposition 174, according to the results released by the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia.
The CUD and UEDF had bitterly complained about alleged massive ruling-party vote fraud after preliminary results showed Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s EPRDF winning the election.
Protests against alleged electoral irregularities turned violent in June when up to 40 people were killed in Addis Ababa during demonstrations, and the opposition has not relented in its accusations of fraud.
The results issued on Tuesday cover 492 of the 524 constituencies that were contested on May 15 but give the EPRDF and its allies an unbeatable lead in Parliament.
Re-elections are to be held in the remaining 32 constituencies on August 21, the same day that voters in remote Somali state will go to the polls for the first time to elect their 23 representatives under Ethiopia’s split election cycle. — Sapa-AFP