Ethiopia's Zenawi sworn in as PM

  1. Posted on Tuesday 5 October 2010 - 10:20
    Muhyadin
    Muhyadin Ahmed Roble, AfricaNews reporter in Nairobi, Kenya
    Ethiopia's Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has been sworn into office for another five years following four months disputed landslide election win. He will nominate new ministers this week. The Ethiopia's rulling party of People's Revolutionary Democratic Front and its allies have won 545 seats in the 547 parliament members.
    meles_zenawi
    The country’s biggest opposition coalition, the eight-party Medrek, won only one seat in the parliament but did not trust the electoral board.

    Medrek and other Ethiopia Unity Party (AEUP) demanded re-run election, saying the vote was rigged. The country's electoral board and Supreme Court denied the demands.

    Meles who overthrew the communist government of Mengistu Haile Mariam has been in power since 1991.

    In a preliminary report, a European Union (EU) observer mission said the poll was marred by the EPRDF's use of state resources.

    The EU's full report, yet to be published, has provoking criticism from Ethiopian opposition parties but it is now expected in mid-October, according to Reuters.

    US has also criticised the elections, and said it fell short of international standards.

    However, the re-elected Ethiopia prime minister said that his government would give no attention to the report.

    "We have seen a glimmer of what it might look like and what we have seen is bad enough. So we aren't interested anymore in the full package," Meles told reporters last month.

    New York-based Human Rights Watch had also criticized May’s poll as corrupted by pre-election irregularities but government officials have denied charges of rigging Election.

    In 2005, violence killed some 200 people after opposition parties who claim of fraud triggered clashes with police.

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