Ethiopian opposition parties reject partial poll results

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, July 10, 2005 (The Reporter) — The opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) and the opposition United Ethiopian Democratic Forces (UEDF) have described as inappropriate the announcement the day before yesterday of only 307 election results by the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE).

Ethiopia’s opposition leader Beyene Petros of the United Ethiopian Democratic Forces. (Reuters).

UEDF Deputy Chairman Beyene Petros told The Reporter that he did not support the irresponsible manner in which the NEBE announced partial election results at a time when all parties had agreed to accept a final result after investigations were conducted. Describing the results as meaningless, Beyene said “how can we accept it? It does not even indicate whether I myself have won in the elections.

Asked whether his constituent was contested, he replied:
“It was contested, but it was decided that there will be no investigations into it.”

Beyene said his party would not accept the results and it would still wait for final results that should be announced after investigations were carried out.

A member of the leadership of the CUD, Gzachew Shiferaw, said the results would have been meaningful only if they were announced after complaints were investigated in just manner acceptable to all parties. Opposing the announcement of the results of only 307 seats before the investigations were completed, he said his party should look into details of the results to decide whether they were appropriate or not.

Material provided by the BBC Monitoring Service, original in Amharic