Ethiopian govt claims to have won election

Ethiopia’s ruling party claims to have won just over half the seats in the country’s parliamentary election, but opposition leaders declared it was still too early to tell who would form the next government.

Minister of Information Bereket Simon, who is also spokesman for the ruling Ethiopia People’s Revolutionary Front, acknowledged opposition gains, but today insisted his party would remain in power in the 547-seat parliament.

“We have the majority. We can’t give exact figures but we have won more than 300 seats. This is a very positive result for us.”

More than 90% of voters went to the polls for what was seen as a test of Ethiopian leaders’ commitment to democracy and what was the most competitive election in the country’s 3,000 year history.

The National Election Board is expected to announce provisional results on Saturday, although results are being posted outside individual polling stations when counting is complete.

Party poll watchers are reporting the results to their leaders as they come in. Official election results will be announced on June 8.

European Union observers described it as “the most genuinely competitive elections the country has experienced”, despite some problems and human rights violations.

The EU cited the killing of at least four political activists, opposition rallies being broken up and the frequent but brief detention of opposition activists during the campaign. They added that more than 300 opposition activists had been beaten.

Former US President Jimmy Carter, who led 24 teams of observers from his human rights and development centre, said that while there were minor problems in the run-up to the vote, the elections on Sunday were “as good as any we’ve seen”.

“Great progress was made toward democracy,” said Carter, praising the government’s decision to hold regular political debates and granting the opposition free radio and television time, but said there were isolated cases of unlawful arrests and harassment.

The main opposition group, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy, insisted the ruling party’s declaration of victory was premature.

“If they have won fairly and squarely I have no problem with that, but the counting is not even over yet. It is still too early to call,” said leader Hailu Shawel.

“They are announcing areas where they have swindled results. This is just a propaganda piece that has nothing to do with the conclusive outcome,” added Beyene Petros, vice chairman of the other opposition party, the United Ethiopian Democratic Forces.

The opposition groups – which came into the race with just 12 of 547 seats in parliament – had been expected to do well in Addis Ababa and other urban areas.

Opposition leaders had claimed yesterday that, by their count, they had won at least 185 seats across the country, including all 23 seats in the capital.

The ruling coalition that ended an oppressive dictatorship in 1991 was expected to move ahead as results come in from rural areas, where most of Ethiopia’s 70 million people live.

International observers were allowed to monitor voting here for the first time. More than 500 foreign observers, including the European Union teams, monitored the polls.

Kemal Bedri, chairman of the National Electoral Board, said 90% of the more than 25 million who had registered voted.

Polling stations were overwhelmed. Those still in line after polls officially closed at 6pm Sunday were allowed to vote, and polling in Addis Ababa lasted until 5am local time (3am Irish time) yesterday.

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, known as one of the continent’s more progressive leaders, has pledged his sometimes authoritarian government would introduce greater democracy. Many had pointed to Sunday’s race as a test of his commitment to reform.

Ethiopia was an absolute monarchy under Emperor Haile Selassie until the mid-1970s, when a brutal Marxist junta overthrew him.

Civil wars wracked the ethnically fractured country in the 1980s, and famine took as many as one million lives.

Meles’ rebel group overthrew the junta in 1991 when he became president, then prime minister, in 1995.