25 May 2010,
(ADDIS ABABA) - Ethiopia's weekend elections were marked by "narrowing political space", with the ruling party using state resources to boost its campaign, European Union observers said Tuesday.
The east African nation's electoral board annnounced late Monday that Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's ruling coalition was in the lead across the country following Sunday's legislative polls.
"The title of our preliminary report is high turnout on election day but marred by narrowing political space and (an) uneven political field," Thijs Berman, the head of the European Union's observation mission, told reporters.
Berman, who headed a mission of around 160 observers, charged that Meles' ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) had used state resources to bolster its campaign and neutralise the opposition's.
"The separation between the ruling party and the administration was blurred in many cases at the local level," Berman alleged.
"The EU observed the use of state resources for the campaign."
The Dutch member of the European Parliament also said that too little was done to ensure the credibility of the national electoral board (NEBE).
"Insufficient measures were taken to increase the level of trust of some political parties in the NEBE institution, especially at the local level," Berman added.
Meles and his supporters were already celebrating victory Tuesday but the opposition claimed the results were "completely fraudulent".
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