Ethiopian ruling party EPRDF wins election in Ethiopia

Tigrai Online, May 27, 2015

Dr. Merera Gudina, chairman of the Oromo Federalist Congress party is strongly whining about EPRDF winning the Ethiopian election

Ethiopian ruling party EPRDF and it’s affiliated parties won the 2015 general election in a landslide. The preliminary election results were released by the Ethiopian Election board on May 27, 2015. The results indicated EPRDF has swept the election in Addis Ababa the capital of the country and in many regional states including Tigrai State.  In Addis Ababa the lone opposition Member of Parliament MP Girma Seifu lost his seat to EPRDF member, because the ruling party won all 23 seats for the city.

The Ethiopian constitution stipulates in order for any party to form a majority government, a party need 274 seats out of the total 547 seats in the Ethiopian parliament.  So far from the counted results the EPRDF party has won 408 seats guaranteeing it to rule Ethiopia for the next five more years.

Over 30 million Ethiopians have voted in the current general election. Hardly anyone would be surprised about the sweeping victory of the ruling party in Ethiopia. The opposition parties not only lack national agenda and cohesive ideas about how to run the country, they are badly fragmented. There were 57 registered opposition parties for the latest election, however none of them empresses the Ethiopian population to get the majority vote.

Dr. Merera Gudina, chairman of the Oromo Federalist Congress party is strongly whining about the election. In an interview he had with the Eritrean Satellite Television – ESAT he ridiculed the election, “It was not an election, it was an organized armed robbery” he said. The interesting irony about Dr. Merera Gudina is he didn’t even vote for himself or for his party saying he was so busy to get a voting card.

The AU observers and 40 thousand local observers declared the election peaceful and free. Some opposition parties who started complaining way before the election are still claiming there was harassment of their members.