Ethiopian opposition calls for calm until final vote results

ADDIS ABABA, June 12 (AFP) — After a week of deadly violence Ethiopia’s main opposition group, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD), on Sunday called on people to await “calmly” the publication of final results of the May 15 legislative elections.

A lone Ethiopian street boy rests in front of a closed shop in Addis Ababa. (AFP).

“CUD calls upon the people to follow actively the implementation process of the agreement and to wait for the results (expected July 8) with patience,” the party’s Vice Chairman Berhanu Nega told a press conference in Addis Ababa.

At least 30 people were killed in the past week in post-election unrest in the Ethiopian capital.

On Friday, under pressure from foreign donors, the government and opposition signed a truce in a bid to ease a police crackdown on demonstrators who were protesting alleged fraud in the poll.

“To implement the tripartite agreement successfully, an atmosphere of social calm and normalcy are absolute necessity”, Berhanu said, adding: “We don’t think it is constructive to engage in this kind of action (demonstrations) until the process of review of the complaints goes through.”

The May 15 elections were the most bitterly disputed Ethiopia has ever seen.

Provisional results released by the national election board show the opposition making significant gains but give the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), which has ruled the country for 14 years, an overall majority in parliament.

The CUD maintains the government stole the election through massive ballot rigging during the polls, which were the first to be monitored by international observers since Prime Minister Meles Zenawi toppled a marxist regime in 1991.

The election board has delayed certification of final results until July 8 due to the volume of complaints it has recieved.

“We cannot predict the results ahead of time. We want to make sure the process is credible enough for all of us to accept it”, Berhanu said.

Opposition leaders are still under virtual house arrests and say that thousands of their members and supporters are in detention at a military base, while the government defends its actions as necessary to preserve the peace.

The international community has registered its deep concern and called for calm and restraint, yet the week’s bloody events are still clouded by conflicting accounts of exactly how and why violence erupted.