Latest Ethiopian election results show ruling coalition has majority

By AMBER HENSHAW

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, Aug 9, 2005 (AP) — The latest election results show the ruling coalition has a majority in the new parliament, the National Electoral Board chairman said Tuesday.

The latest round of results from the violence-shadowed May 15 election were announced following weeks of investigations into allegations of vote rigging. National Electoral Board Chairman Kemal Bedri said that the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front has won 296 seats in the 547-member body.

Smaller, political parties allied to the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front have won 22 seats, he said.

The ruling party and its allies needed at least 274 seats to form Ethiopia’s next government.

The largest opposition group, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy, has won 109 seats, Kemal said. Another opposition group, the United Ethiopian Democratic Front, won 52 seats. Other parties won 13 seats.

The parliamentary poll held in May was followed by a large number of complaints of electoral fraud and discrepancies by both the ruling party and opposition groups, which led to protests last month in the capital, Addis Ababa.

Police fired on demonstrators, killing at least 36.

Kemal said that the board will rerun the elections in 31 seats and hold a by-election in one seat on Aug. 21.

On the same day, elections for 23 constituencies will be held in the eastern region of Somali. Heavy rains had made it difficult to hold election in Somali when the rest of the country voted.

Results from those polls will be released on Sept. 5.

The elections were seen as a key test of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s commitment to greater democratic reform in the country he has ruled for 14 years.

Britain froze 20 million British pounds (US$34.9 million; euro28.9 million) in aid after the demonstrators were gunned down. Both the United States and the European Union have called on the government to respect human rights, and urged an independent inquiry into the killings.