AU urges political parties to work for unity

The African Union (AU) has urged political parties in Ethiopia to work together in the national interest following the conclusion of the disputed 15 May legislative elections. "The African Union commends the people of Ethiopia and all political parties for demonstrating maturity and responsibility by participating in the multi-party democratic elections," an AU statement issued on Wednesday added. However, it urged the parties to "pursue any outstanding issues through due processes of the law and agreed mechanisms including dialogue". The National Electoral Board of Ethiopia announced on Tuesday official results from 492 constituencies, which showed that Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front had won 296 of 524 seats contested - about 56 percent - enabling it to form a government. However, Ethiopia's largest opposition party, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD), on Wednesday rejected the results. "These are flawed results, consistent with what we have come to expect," Berhanu Nega, vice chairman of the CUD, told IRIN. Ethiopia's information minister, Bereket Simon, told IRIN: "The opposition has been proved wrong. The honourable thing for them to do is to accept the election results." The 53-nation African body, based in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, said it had played an important role in the election, as well as the electoral board's post-election investigations into alleged election fraud. Disputes over alleged electoral malpractices in 178 constituencies sparked disturbances in June in Addis Ababa and other provinces, in which Ethiopian security forces were accused of shooting dead at least 40 protestors.