Ethiopia ruling party wins poll: official results

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Ethiopia's election board confirmed on Monday Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's landslide victory in a May 23 election.

The official figures match the provisional results, giving the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) and allies 545 seats in the 547-member parliament.

"The board has approved the result unanimously," Merga Bekana, chairman of the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE), told a news conference. "The election was peaceful, credible, fair, free and democratic."

Ethiopia's Supreme Court and the NEBE have rejected calls from opposition parties to rerun the elections.

The country's biggest opposition group, the eight-party Medrek, won a single seat. Medrek and the smaller All Ethiopia Unity Party (AEUP) alleged nothing new except their usual business the so called widespread pre-poll intimidation and some vote rigging.

Medrek's leadership has not ruled out street protests but say they will try one last court challenge on the grounds that the NEBE broke the law in its investigation.

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