ADDIS ABABA – Ethiopia’s prime minister Meles Zenawi has urged foreign nations to respect his landslide election win and has told the opposition they will be consulted on decisions of national concern.
The country’s electoral board said the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front and allied parties had won 534 seats out of 536 declared, giving Mr Meles almost every seat in the 547-member parliament.
“Even if you don’t have seats in parliament, we promise to consult you on issues of national concern,” Mr Meles said yesterday, reaching out to opposition leaders at a victory rally in Addis Ababa. “We consider you an important part of this renaissance.”
The prime minister told tens of thousands of cheering supporters that foreign forces could not overturn the outcome of the poll in the Horn of Africa nation, which is a key Washington ally, and warned against any post-election bloodshed.
An EU observer mission, however, said the election was marred by the Revolutionary Democratic Front’s use of state resources for campaigning, putting the opposition at a disadvantage ahead of the vote, but this did not mean the count itself was invalid. “Everyone was equal, but some were more equal than others,” chief observer Thijs Berman told a news conference, saying the poll fell short of some international standards.
Western diplomats are watching closely to see how the opposition will react after many of its senior leaders lost their seats in the parliamentary victory for Mr Meles, who is looking to foreign investors to help accelerate development.
The tens of thousands of supporters who streamed into Meskel Square yesterday to celebrate the win and to reject claims of vote-rigging, waved Ethiopian flags and wore ruling party T-shirts.
Mr Meles had said in an interview on Sunday that his party had presided over seven years of double-digit growth and had begun to reform the political and judicial landscape in this growing destination for foreign direct investment.
While almost 10 per cent of the population relied on emergency food aid last year, the government has invested heavily in infrastructure. The prime minister said he now wanted to step up power production, improve telecommunications and develop industry.– (Reuters)