Ruling party edges closer to victory

Results from more than half the seats in Ethiopia’s legislative polls have been counted, with the ruling party edging closer to holding the majority, an election official said on Friday. The ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), led by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, was 65 seats short of the 274 seats needed to form a majority in Ethiopia’s 547-seat parliament. Provisional results from 363 constituencies have been released by the National Election Board (NEB) and show that the EPRDF held 209 seats, with affiliated parties gaining 12 more. Opposition parties have made huge gains from the 12 seats they hold in the current parliament: Thus far, they have won seats in 142 of the constituencies counted. "These results are provisional, and these results could change because we are looking into complaints by some of the parties," NEB spokesman Getahun Amogne said. UN Secretary-General Koffi Annan met with the prime minister before an appointment with the main opposition leaders in the country. Earlier, Javier Solana, the EU’s foreign policy chief, met with the prime minister and then with opposition leaders. Annan and Solana were in Ethiopia to attend a donor conference on Sudan. The electoral body also declared that elections would be repeated on 2 June, in 16 polling stations in two regions of the country. Getahun said that elections in those polling stations had been prematurely stopped because of the delays caused by clashes between voters and security staff. "For most of [the voters], the elections were interrupted," he said. "There was a lot of anger because they were waiting so long. So they rushed in, and the voting had to be stopped." The main opposition party has lodged complaints in 139 constituencies, while the ruling party has raised concerns over irregularities in more than 50 seats. Getahun added that the political parties would have until 3 June to provide evidence of fraud, or their complaints would be scrapped. The EU criticised the NEB for delays in releasing polling results, saying it raised the prospect of fraud. In a statement released on Thursday, NEB chief Kemal Bedri dismissed the accusation and said: "We are doing very well in ensuring that provisional results are known across Ethiopia as early as possible. This is a significant contribution towards improving the transparency of the electoral process." The opposition has threatened to boycott parliament if the allegations of vote fraud are not properly investigated by a joint team that should include representatives of political parties, electoral authorities and international observers.