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ADDIS ABABA, May 23 (Xinhuanet) -- US President George W. Bush will discuss Israel's Gaza disengagement plan when he meets Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas this week, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Monday.
NEBE said in a statement it has received preliminary
results ofover 130 constituencies and preliminary results of 121 constituencies
have already been registered in the board's database after a thorough scrutiny.
The results were dispatched from constituencies in
the Afar, Tigray, Amhara, Oromia and the South Ethiopia People's states as well
as the city of Dire Dawa, it said.
Opposition parties were following the ruling party
with cumulative results they obtained in 43 constituencies.
Accordingly, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy
(CUD) was following the EPRDF with 23 and 14 constituencies it won in the
capital Addis Ababa and other states, respectively, which would enable it get 37
seats.
The EPRDF, which has conceded losing all 23
parliamentary seatsin Addis Ababa and all seats in the city council, said it
would hand over administrative authority to the opposition under an unspecified
but set timetable.
The United Ethiopian Democratic Forces managed four
constituencies while the Afar National Democratic Party secured two
constituencies, with two constituencies going to the Oromo Federalist Democratic
Movement.
The preliminary results would be added up with
results of higher learning institutions to be officially announced by NEBE
onJune 8.
As both ruling and opposition parties have been
claiming victory based on projections from tallies drawn up by party monitors at
individual polling stations at which results have beenposted, analysts said NEBE
may have felt pressure to start releasing results because tensions have been
raised by conflictingclaims from the parties.
CUD threatened Monday to boycott the next session of
parliamentunless its complaints of widespread vote fraud in last week's general
elections are resolved.
With preliminary official returns from only a
fraction of the country's 547 constituencies announced by election authorities
more than a week after the polls, the opposition also urged the Ethiopian people
to prepare to peacefully protest any attempt to whitewash their complaints.
Ethiopians went to poll on May 15 in the country's
two separateelections to elect representatives to the 547-seat House of People'
s Representatives (HPR) and eight regional councils. Elections in southeastern
Somali state will take place in August.
Ethiopia's has a two-house parliament: the 110-seat
upper Houseof the Federation and the 547-seat lower House of People's
Representatives. Enditem |