By Barry Malone
Ethiopian police Woyanne gunmen shot dead two opposition members in the sensitive Oromia region after an election the ruling party won by a landslide, an opposition party and the government said Wednesday.
The electoral board said Tuesday the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) Tigrean People Liberation Front (Woyanne) and allied parties had won 534 seats out of 536 declared, giving Prime Minister Meles Zenawi most seats in the 547-member parliament.
The shootings occurred over a two-day period, the opposition said.
“One was shot Sunday and one was shot yesterday,” Merera Gudina, leader of the opposition Oromo People’s Congress (OPC), a member of the opposition coalition Medrek, told Reuters. “The government is trying to prevent protests by massively repressing the people.”
Government head of information, Bereket Simon, said one man was shot after trying to storm an office where ballots were being counted and the other was shot a day later by a policeman whom he had beaten during the same incident.
“It is unfortunate that the men were killed,” Bereket told Reuters. “But these are isolated incidents. It is nothing to do with any instruction from above.” He said there was a warrant for the policeman’s arrest.