Meanwhile, the National Electoral Board said on Saturday official results would not be released before June 8, and opposition parties reiterated their warnings any delaying tactics and the ruling party’s preoccupation with vote rigging would entail severe consequences.
Berket Simon, a spokesman of the ruling party, however, reversed the accusations and blamed the opposition for fraud. The Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) said has won 146 seats of 50 percent polling stations where vote counting has been finalized. Reacting to the ruling party’s activities, Dr. Beyene Petros of the opposition UEDF told AP of “grave consequences” if the results do not reflect the voters’ will. UEDF chairman Dr Merera Gudina meanwhile said Beyene should have been misquoted by the BBC. Beyene’s call for a unity government is with the opposition CUD, and not with the ruling party, which stands accused of vote rigging, and adopting draconian measures to cling to power by force, the opposition leader said.
“If the ruling party continues in its defiance of the rights of the Ethiopian people,” CUD said, “directives would be issued, instructing our people what they can do to ensure the respect of their democratic rights.”
The following is a list of high-ranking ruling party officials voted out of office by the city residents of Addis Ababa on May 15.
