Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front was declared the official winner of May 15 general elections with an announcement Sept. 5.

Opposition parties continued to argue that they were robbed of victory by the PRDF, which had gone into the elections seemingly confident of support from a population it had delivered from dictatorship and that was reliant on official food aid. Instead, there was a groundswell of support for an opposition promising economic and political reforms. A crackdown ensued, and the result was an election widely denounced as undemocratic.

The Japan Times Weekly: Sept. 10, 2005
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