Ethiopia suspends release of poll results in 10 disputed constituencies
ADDIS ABABA, June 1 (AFP) — Ethiopian authorities said Wednesday they have suspended the release of poll returns from at least 10 constituencies pending investigations into alleged fraud in last month’s legislative elections.
However, the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) said its decision was not based on a suit filed by opposition parties to prevent the board from certifying preliminary results that show a ruling party victory.
“The board has stopped publishing the results of 10 constituencies because there have been a lot of complaints in these zones,” said Hiwot Alemayu, a NEBE official. “We have to investigate them first.”
Although the move came less than 24 hours after the opposition sought a court order to bar the validation of results from at least 200 disputed contituencies, he said the board took the step unilaterally.
“The decision not to publish the results of these 10 constituencies has nothing to do with the complaints of the opposition,” Hiwot said.
He said the board would decide on Friday whether to conduct similar investigations and delay or retract provisional results in other constituencies.
On Tuesday, Ethiopia’s main opposition group, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD), rejected partial preliminary results from the hotly contested May 15 election released by the NEBE and sued to stop their certification.
Those returns, from 510 of the 524 constituencies where polling took place, show the ruling Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) with 300 seats in the 547-member parliament and opposition groups, which held only 12 before, with 191. The remaining 23 seats will be contested in August.
Final official results are due to be released on June 8 but the CUD and the other main opposition coalition have vowed to reject them and stage mass protests unless their allegations of vote-rigging are fully probed.
They claim widespread fraud and irregularities occurred in nearly 200 constituencies.
International observers, who lauded the conduct of the election on polling day itself, have registered growing concern at post-vote developments and urged that all complaints be fully investigated and adjudicated.
The EPRDF, which has been in power for 14 years, has conceded losses in the election but insists it has enough seats in parliament to form a new government.
In addition to seeking to prevent the election board from certifying disputed results, opposition parties have also sued to lift Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s imposition of a one-month on public demonstrations in the capital.