ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) — Ethiopia’s election board says provisional results show the ruling party has won the national vote.
Board chairman Merga Bekana says the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front and its allies have won in the nine regions that have reported results out of a total of 11.
He says the party also is ahead for 20 of the capital’s 23 parliamentary seats, with only two left to report results in Addis Ababa. There are 546 assembly seats in all.
New York-based Human Rights Watch had criticized Sunday’s vote as corrupted by pre-election irregularities, including telling voters they could lose food assistance, public-sector jobs, loans and educational opportunities if they voted against the ruling party.
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ADDIS ABABA (VOA) — Early reports suggest Ethiopia’s ruling party has won a massive victory in Sunday’s parliament elections. Almost every major opposition leader appears to have been defeated.
The headquarters of Ethiopia’s main opposition party was like a funeral parlor as observers reported in from around the country, opposition leaders were dumbstruck at the possibility of a nearly complete rout.
High-profile leaders such as former president Negasso Gidada, senior figures in the parliamentary opposition Merera Gudina and Beyene Petros, all appear headed for defeat.
Other prominent political leaders, including Hailu Shewal and Lidetu Ayalew were also said to have conceded.
In Addis Ababa, opposition parties won all 23 seats in parliament five years ago, but this time it looks as if they have been wiped out.
Sitting in a quiet back office of jailed opposition leader Birtukan Mideksa’s Unity for Justice and Democracy party headquarters, parliamentary leader Temesgen Zewdie was devastated by the early results.
“It is a total surprise, a total shock, and we are sure investigating as to what went wrong for us to perform this poorly,” said Temesgen Zewdie.
Temesgen said an opposition divided into many blocs made it easy for Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front in ‘first past the post’ contests.
“Medrek in Addis and the regions, in the preliminary showing, is second to EPRDF, and had this been proportional representation, we probably would have shared some seats with the ruling party, but since this is winner take all system, we are at a disadvantage,” said Temesgen.
In the yard outside party headquarters, scores of young opposition supporters milled around, obviously upset. Nineteen-year-old Achame Lazarus, who had served as a Medrek poll watcher Sunday, said the election had been stolen.
“We are practicing false democracy in Ethiopia, the principles are being told by our government officials, but as you can see from the ground level, things are going not on the right track,” said Achame Lazarus.
Medrek senior leader and former Ethiopian president Negasso Gidada said the job of party elders is to cool down their disenchanted supporters to avoid a repeat of the violence that followed the disputed 2005 election.
“Maybe some of them are angry, but we will cool them, we will register the facts, what happened in the process, tell them what happened, and after telling them, we will tell them, be cool, we are a peaceful party, and when there are cases that have to go to the election board, and if it is not solved there we will go to the court,” said Negasso Gidada.
The first word from election officials is the elections had gone smoothly and peacefully. National Electoral Board spokesman Mohamed Abdurahman said there had been no reports of cheating.
“The board has received no single complaint formally, including the opposition parties, the public, the ruling party, they all said it was peaceful, calm and free,” said Mohamed Abdurahman.
Ruling party officials were cautious in declaring victory. Government Communications Minister Bereket Simon would only say it appeared as if the EPRDF had won comfortably. Party spokesman Hailemariam Dessalegn said he was standing by earlier predictions of turnout possibly exceeding 90 percent.
The European Union and African Union deployed a total of nearly 250 observers spread out across the country to monitor activities at 43,000 precincts. EU Chief Observer Thijs Berman has scheduled a news conference Tuesday to deliver a preliminary verdict on the fairness of the vote.
12 thoughts on “Election board says Woyanne won 20 out of 23 seats in Addis”
1. ይድረስ ለአቶ መለስ
የ ቴጌ ጣ ይቱ የሚኒሊክን ቤት:
19 አመት አንተ ብትኖርበት: አልጋው በስበስ የተቀመጥቅበት:: ፍራሹ ተግማማ ጫት የምትቅምበት: ማእዱ ከረፋ ደም ያፈሰሰክበት:: ግቢው ዝምብ ወረረው አጋዚ ፈሰቶበት:: ባንዳው አቶ መለስ ውጣ ከ ቤታችን: የቆሸሸ እንደ አንተ የለም በዘራችን:: በሽተኛው መልስ አንጎልህ ተናውጥዋል : በ ቅናት በክፋት ልብህ ተረብሽዋል:: ይብላኝ ለልጆችህ የ ሁለት ርጉም ዘር: የታሪክ ወራዶች ለዘርህ የሚተርፍ:: ነፍስህ በፍርሀት እንደተወጠረች: 19 አመት ይህው አሰቆጠረች:: ሁሉን ተጠራጥረህ ተሸማቆ ኑሮ: አስመሳይ አዋቂ የአውነት ደንቆሮ:: የነጮቹ ውሻ :ለማኝ አሰዳቢ : ሌባ ነፍስገዳይ ሆዳም አቃጣሪ :: አንተን አያደርገኝ ያቺ ቀን ስትመጣ: በ አካፋ ተዝቆ ረሳህ ሲወጣ::
What else we expect from a bunch of bold-faced liar woyanees! They haven’t told a single truth in the last 20 years, why start now! Psychopaths have no conscience, and they are incapable of telling the truth. Their main purpose in life is self-satisfaction by all means necessary: lie, steal, throw their oppositions in prison, torture and kill.
The chief priests advise the soldiers guarding Jesus’ tomb to say to the public: “His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep,” and we will assure the governor your reports are accurate (Matthew 8:12-13). Here the guards represent Meles’ cadres; the empty tomb represents the ballot box of the opposition party; the chief priests represent the ballot box inspectors; and the governor represents Meles Seitanawi. All of them – the priests, the guards, and the governor – are damned liars. So are the Woyanne cadres, the inspectors, and Meles Seitanawi. The boxes for the opposition party may be empty now like the empty tomb of Jesus Christ. The ballots in those boxes may have been stolen during night time; however, the Woyanne cadres, the inspectors, and Meles him self are denying nothing has happened to the ballot boxes of the opposition party.
Meles cadres from the beginning of the campaign until the end have been harassing, intimidating, and even killing some members of the opposition party, and when such crimes are reported to Meles, he, as usual denies such crimes have ever been committed. He would say that it is some members of the opposing party who steal ballots and create confusions among his parties.
Meles with his awesome Tigrean military power and false propaganda has won the election, and no doubt about his victory. Even if by some miraculous events the opposition wins, Washington and Great Britain would be reluctant to recognize and admit the defeat of Meles Seitanawi, their obedient and subservient domestic servant. They fear, without Meles, Al Qaida will bomb London and Washington. They believe from the bottoms of their hearts that Meles is the one who has curved the terrorist movements in east Africa as well as in the rest of the world. They don’t care what Meles, their staunch ally does to the Ethiopian people and how he discriminates, but how he favors only his own tribes – the Tegarues.
Now the election is over, and the winner, as it was predicted, is the same evil person, Meles Seitanawi, Ethiopians must swallow their grievances and stomach the election results whether it is sweeter than honey in their mouths and bitter in their stomach. They have to live with it for another five years. It is sad!
After the spirit of Meles found Meles clean and neat, he went back to Mekelle to cast Meles’ ballot, and when it came back from Mekelle, he brought with him “… seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man (Meles) is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation,” the generation that cast its ballots in the wrong ballot-box of Meles Seitanawi.
To appease the desires of the evil spirits that possessed him, Meles is willing to sacrifice more Ethiopian bloods, and to satisfy the needs of foreigners, he is going to sell more lands to the Arabs and create more border conflicts with his neighbors, especially with Sudan and Somalia.
How to get out of this mess before Meles’ term is over is not an easy task, because we cannot fight with Americans; we cannot fight with Europeans – all of them are Meles’ allies. Yes, we can fight with Meles and win easily, and we could have done it long time age if the Americans and the Europeans have been on our side in stead of on our enemy’s side.
I wonder what else this guys (polititian who told us 20yrs woyanne is gonna give power by paper vote)are gonna say now
they mislead the people of ethiopia for 20yrs for there own political adiction
we should send them to political rehab we realy need to help them
Well, if the people of Addis really gave their voices to the weyanes, then any time from now we shall witness millions of people rush out to Mesqel Square to celebrate their victory. But, sadly, weyanes will never live to see that happen. If weyanes can get the people to do that then i would say weyanes managed to fool the people.
Woyane is cleaning up the house. They don’t want any body that has been in politics in the new Parliament. They seem to be determined to recruit new guys to replace the old guard and use them as opposition forces.
Ofourse this is not news. we all knew the outcome and should not surprise us that the “kindibu yamaarew gorilla won! sad. we ethiopians can do better, the last 5 years were wasted, instead of organizing a strong united opposition we wasted time highlihting our differences instead of getting united against one enemy woyane.
now let us get ready for the coming election, as u all know, it will be here soon enough! Unity is Strength and Power!
This remind of me of near 100% vote Saddam used to get in Iraq. They are only fooling them selves. how on earth can Addiss go for TPLF.
The opposition should learn a lesson from this election, divided, no win.
This is the result of ato Lidetu and engineer Hailus plot of dismantling Kinejet appart. Tebaberu(unite)or face
the result of todays shame.Sorry Birtukan!
Apparently the EPRDF won 22 out of 24 seats in Addis. So the people of Addis had a massive change of heart from the last elections. I guess the weyanes are telling us that the arrest of political leaders, the murder of protesters in the last elections, and the spate of murders of politicians has endeared weyane to the residents of Addis. I thought I had heard it all. I wonder what else they will come up with.
Peace
Daniel
“Absulutely democratic election!” Qa!Qa!Qa!Qa!Qa!Qa!… LOL