Ethiopia: Ruling party, allies win all seats and ~ 95% of the votes

Update: Further extrapolation of the data show the EPRDF and its allies amassed almost 31 million (about 95%) of the votes cast. On the other hand, the total votes cast for the opposition parties is a little below 2 million (about 4.7%). See: Infographic: How Ethiopia voted

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EPRDF and its allies declared as winners of all but one seat. The remaining seat is won by the ruling party, though not included in today’s announcement.

In the 547 seats federal parliament, the ruling party EPRDF(Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front) won 500 seats while its allies took 46 seats, the National Election Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) said today in its announcement final results of the May 24 election.

In the same fashion, EPRDF and its allies amassed all but three state legislative seats contested in election.

HornAffairs’ extrapolation of the figures disclosed today indicate that EPRDF and its allies received about 91% (or 30 million) of the total valid ballots cast.

The rest 50 plus opposition parties received less than a tenth of the total votes cast.

Preliminary data indicated that the major opposition coalition Medrek and Semayawi (Blue) party are better performers in the opposition camp. The two have already rejected the election.

The remaining one federal and three state seats belong to Gimbo electoral district, in Kaffa zone of Southern Nations Nationalities and People’s state, where an independent MP Ashebir WoldeGiorgis (PhD) was seeking re-election. The poll for the district was delayed for last week following a clash between supporters of the candidates.  Unofficial results of the poll indicate that the ruling party received about 83% of with four-fifth of the ballots counted.

The EPRDF is made up of four regional parties – namely, TPLF (Tigray People’s Liberation Front), OPDO (Oromo People’s Democratic Organization), ANDM  (Amhara National Democratic Movement) and SEPDM (Southern Ethiopian People’s Democratic Movement). However, five others parties are officially referred to as its allies and heed its instructions – namely, ANDP (Afar National Democratic Party), ESDP (Ethiopian Somali Democratic Party),  BGDP (Benishangul Gumuz Democratic Party),  GPDP (Gambela People’s Democratic Party) and HNL (Hareri National League).

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