The party that overthrew a horrific junta in Ethiopia retained power through the ballot, but only after months of violence and allegations of vote-rigging that raised concerns about the future of democracy in the country. The Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front was on Monday declared the official winner of May 15 elections.
The African Union Commission recommended on Monday lifting United Nations economic sanctions against Liberia to help finance reconstruction, despite widespread government corruption. AU Commission chairperson Alpha Oumar Konare says in the report that new thinking on the sanctions is needed.
Ethiopia will rerun parliamentary elections in at least 20 of the 524 seats contested during fiercely disputed polls, the chairperson of the National Election Board said on Friday. Kemal Bedri said a new vote would be held in August. He said investigators have found evidence of irregularities at more than 100 polling stations.
A rare and deadly parasitic disease has killed 159 people since late last year during an outbreak in northern Ethiopia, an international aid agency said on Tuesday. A doctor from Médécins sans Frontières said the majority of deaths have been among children under the age of 12.
Africa needs at least -billion a year to deal with children orphaned by HIV/Aids, the United Nations and the African Union said on Thursday. More than one in 10 children in Africa are already orphaned with numbers expected to hit more than 50-million children by 2010.
Ethiopia’s government has rejected international condemnation of a police crackdown on demonstrators angered over a disputed election, holding opposition politicians responsible for violence that has left at least 27 people dead. International donors have condemned the violence.
Police raided a technical college in Ethiopia’s capital on Tuesday, beating up students and firing rubber bullets on the second day of defiance of a government ban on demonstrations, witnesses said. Clashes between police and student demonstrators on Monday left a girl dead, seven people injured and hundreds arrested.
Ethiopia’s ruling coalition and allied political parties have won a majority in the country’s 547-seat Parliament, according to provisional results, the National Electoral Board said. Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s coalition won 269 seats, while four small independent parties affiliated with the ruling party won 14 seats.
The final results in Ethiopia’s parliamentary election may be delayed because of hundreds of complaints and allegations of fraud filed by the candidates, the National Electoral Board spokesperson said on Friday. The board was scheduled to release the final results of the May 15 election on June 8.
International donors have pledged -million in cash and more in kind to help the African Union expand its peacekeeping mission in Sudan’s troubled Darfur, according to preliminary figures provided on Friday. A senior official said the -million was pledged in cash during a donors’ conference on Thursday.
