ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s Prosperity Party won the most seats in Ethiopia’s parliamentary election, the election board said on Saturday, a victory that assures him another term in office.
Abiy’s party won 410 of 436 parliamentary seats, election board deputy chairperson Woubshet Ayele told a news conference in the capital Addis Ababa.
Abiy hailed the June 21 vote as the country’s first free and fair election after decades of repressive rule.
However, an opposition boycott, war, ethnic violence and logistical challenges overshadowed the election in some areas. Voting did not take place in three of Ethiopia’s 10 regions.
Opposition leader Berhanu Nega said his Ethiopian Citizens for Social Justice party (Ezema) had filed 207 complaints after local officials and militiamen blocked observers in the Amhara region and Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples’ region.
(Reporting by Dawit Endeshaw,; Writing by Maggie Fick,; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
