ADDIS ABABA — Ethiopian opposition groups on Wednesday rejected results of parliamentary elections which gave long-time ruler Meles Zenawi a landslide win, and demanded fresh polls.

The main opposition bloc Medrek, which had already said Sunday's polls were riddled with fraud, called for a re-run of the election hours after another opposition party criticised the process as unfair.

"We will not accept the results and we will call for (a new) election," said Merara Gudina, one of the main leaders of the eight-member Medrek coalition.

Medrek has so far won only one seat, according to preliminary polls which showed Meles' ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) party had taken 499 seats, in results from 536 constituencies.

The vast Horn of Africa nation has a 547-seat lower house and final results are to be released on June 21.



Meles, who has led Ethiopia since 1991 and is a key Western ally against Islamic extremism in the region, had been widely expected to win in the face of a weak opposition and after months of what rights groups described as shrinking political space.

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