(Reuters) - Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi rejected opposition calls for a fresh election on Wednesday, after the Europe Union and the United States said his landslide victory did not meet international standards.
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However, the 55-year-old leader who came to power in 1991 offered the opposition an olive branch, saying forums may be used to give opponents a say in key legislative proposals and how political parties are funded.
The electoral board said on Tuesday the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) and allied parties had won 534 seats out of 536 declared, giving Meles most seats in the 547-member parliament.
Meles said the government would not carry out earlier threats to prosecute some opponents which he said had broken campaign codes.
"The call for fresh elections is completely unjustified and clearly contradicts the law," Meles told a news conference.
"For them to call for a fresh general re-election based on allegations, allegations that have been characterized as unproven and unprovable, even by the observers, would be going a bit too far," he said.
At the last election in 2005, an opposition coalition cried foul after the EPRDF and its allies won 327 seats. Riots erupted in the capital on two separate occasions. Security forces killed 193 protesters and seven policemen died.
A European Union observer mission said this year's election was marred by the EPRDF's use of state resources for campaigning, putting the opposition at a disadvantage ahead of the vote, but this did not mean the count itself was invalid.
The United States said Ethiopia's election failed to meet international standards and called for stronger democratic institutions in the country, a key U.S. ally in fight against the rise of militant Islamism in the Horn of Africa.
"NOT A PROTECTORATE"
An eight-party opposition coalition called Medrek, which has won only one parliamentary seat so far, wants the vote rerun.
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