Outgoing rulers still in lead in Ethiopia vote count

ADDIS ABABA, May 28 (AFP) — Ethiopia’s ruling party continues to hold its lead in May 15 parliamentary polls with preliminary results in from 71 percent of the country’s 547 constituencies, the national electoral board has said.

According to a tally released by the board late Friday, the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) had won 225 of the 394 constituencies for which results have been tallied.

A regional party allied with the EPRDF took seven seats, while the country’s two main opposition groups, which held only 12 seats in parliament before the election, took 143, and two smaller opposition groups won 12 seats.

Little known parties won six seats and an independent candidate won a seat.

On Friday, National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) said it had ordered a re-run of polls in six constituencies of two southern states after looking into a raft of complaints alleging irregularities.

It also said the final preliminary overall tally from Ethiopia’s more than 30,000 polling station might not be released on June 8 as earlier promised owing to large number of electoral complaints being lodged by rival parties.

It however did not give a possible new date.

The delay by NEBE in releasing results, premature victory claims by both the ruling party and opposition as well as post-election pro-government bias in the state media coverage were all criticized by the EU observers this week.

“These practices, taken as a whole, are seriously undermining the transparency and fairness of the elections,” the EU observers said on Wednesday.

“They also risk increasing the scope for manipulation and consequently putting in doubt public confidence in the process,” they said.