The Ethiopian Democratic Party (EDP) announced that it will not accept the results of the recently held election. This makes it the fifth party to reject the election results following Medrek, Blue Party, All Ethiopia Unity Party, and Ethiopian Raey Party.
The announcement was made by the members of the executive committee, including the President of the Party, with Executive Officer, Adane Tadesse, speaking to the media.
Among the 14 complaints of the Party were that their candidates were harassed, some fired from their jobs, they were offered bribes, cancelled from their candidacy and candidate representatives were barred from registration. They were not given solutions to grievances and were subject to the propaganda that opposition parties are anti peace and anti-development. Their electoral campaign materials and presentations were censored. These were some of the claims that the Party presented to explain why they could not accept the preliminary results.
EDP had also discontinued the use of media for campaigning because of censorship one week ahead of the election.
The Party also stated that during the Election Day, campaigning took place within the 20m to 30m radius, EPRDF’s posters were posted inside election stations, armed officials were present in the stations, and ballot boxes were filled up before the voting began.
