Ethiopia’s Ruling Party Wins in Landslide in Key Regions

In Ethiopia’s second multiparty elections, the ruling party has won a landslide electoral victory in the country’s four key regions, the election board said Friday.

The official announcement of the results from the May 14 elections for federal Parliament and eight regional assemblies was postponed for eight days, during which the National Election Board met to discuss and rule on reports of voting irregularities.

The board said the four-party Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front won 98% of the federal Parliament seats allotted to the northern Tigray region and three large regional states. Tigray, Amhara, Oromia and Southern Ethiopia account for 477 of the 548 seats in the federal Parliament.

The four parties that make up the ruling EPRDF also won an estimated 97% to 100% of the assembly seats in their four regions.

A week after the vote, eight opposition parties issued a statement alleging widespread rigging and other irregularities and demanded that the elections be held again.

The elections board did not directly respond to the allegations by the opposition parties, but it has examined and ruled on a number of reports on vote rigging and other irregularities. No international observers were invited to monitor the elections.