Ethiopians vote in election expected to keep ruling party in power

Ethiopians voted Sunday in a parliamentary election that is expected to hand a landslide victory to the ruling party, which boasts about delivering strong economic growth, while opponents complain of harassment.

In power for almost a quarter of a century, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) has overseen the transformation of a nation that was on its knees after communist purges and famine to one that now attracts foreign investors.

But the EPRDF allows little room for dissent, critics say. In 2010, the party won 99.6 percent of all parliamentary seats. Only one opposition lawmaker was elected in a campaign season watchdogs said was marred by the intimidation and harassment of opposition activists.

Human Rights Watch called the 2010 election "the culmination of the government's five-year strategy of systematically closing down space for political dissent and independent criticism."

Bekele Nagaa, a member of the largest opposition coalition Medrek, told Reuters that five years on residents are still being coerced into voting for the ruling party.

"In so many village areas, our people are being harassed and our representatives are being driven away. They are forced to vote for the EPRDF," Nagaa said.

Yonathan Tesfaye, a spokesman for the opposition Blue party, told The Associated Press that Sunday's election was "full of games," referring to alleged electoral malpractices.

"We have received lots of complaints from our observers who were banned from observing the election process. The government has been using a number of techniques to harass them all day," Yonathan said.

The EPRDF-led government has dismissed the charges and promised a free and fair vote.

Ethiopian media has also faced increased repression ahead of the election, according to at least one journalist.

"Independent media has been kept pretty much outside the engagement of the run into the election ... we have not been part of the process, the debates, the discourse that were held between the opposition and the government," Tsedale Lemma, editor and founder of Ethiopian monthly English-language magazine Addis Standard, told Al Jazeera.

The state’s Ethiopian News Agency on Sunday cited the African Union as saying the voting had been mostly "orderly."

More than 36 million citizens are registered to vote in the East African nation of about 90 million people. Shimelis Kemal, a state minister at the Government Communications Affairs office, said voter turnout was more than 85 percent and that the process had been peaceful.

Ethiopia’s Election Board said late Sunday that polling would be extended until Monday at some universities and colleges where there had been a shortage of voting materials. Provisional results are expected in a week, but final results won't be released before June 22.

Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, a former university professor-turned-politician, has been leading Ethiopia since the death in 2012 of strongman Meles Zenawi, who built the ruling coalition into a powerful political organization. The election is Ethiopia’s first since Zenawi’s death.

"They [the opposition] have been campaigning freely," Desalegn told Reuters as he cast his vote in Gununo, about 200 miles west of the capital Addis Ababa. "There has not been any repression."

Al Jazeera and wire services