Ethiopia's ruling party wins general election by landslide

Ethiopia’s ruling party and its allies achieved a clean sweep in last month’s general election, winning all 546 parliamentary seats, the final results showed.

Prime minister Hailemariam Desalegn’s Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) scored a landslide victory, stripping the opposition of the one seat it had held in the outgoing chamber, said Merga Bekana, chairman of the electoral board on Monday.

Preliminary results for the one constituency that still had to return final results – the southwestern Bonga district where elections were delayed – showed the EPRDF also winning that seat.

“The performance of the ruling party is good but the competition was strong,” Merga told reporters at the release of the final results.

“The general elections were characterised by high voter turnout and orderly conduct of the elections proceedings. The elections were culminated in a free, fair, peaceful, credible and democratic manner.”

Along with its allies, the EPRDF, which has governed Africa’s second most populous nation for more than two decades, also won a near clean sweep in regional state councils, winning all but 21 of the 1,987 seats.

Government spokesman Shimeles Kemal said the party’s success was the result of Ethiopia’s economic advances. “Voters have credited the ruling party for the economic progress it introduced in the country,” he said, speaking before the final results were announced.