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Horn of Africa experts in the United States say there will be no contest in Ethiopia's parliamentary election Sunday. They say it will be unlike the volatile vote in 2005, due to a diminished opposition and a ruling party totally in control.
The last election in Ethiopia in 2005 was fiercely contested, and when the opposition alleged there had been cheating in vote counting, riots broke out and about 200 people, most of them opposition activists, were reported killed.
Africa experts say the ruling party in Ethiopia made sure Sunday's upcoming election will not repeat that pattern. Excerpt: Terrence Lyons from George Mason University says he is disappointed, but not surprised by current political conditions. He says competition is still taking place within the ruling party. "Some of the folks who have been in power for almost 20 years are retiring and a younger generation, some perhaps more technocratic or more professional is coming up. There are endless speculations about what might happen when and if Prime Minister Meles Zenawi were to step down and who might be the successor. So, there are a lot of those kinds of questions that are percolating now," he said.
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