While acknowledging that details of the results are not yet known and discrepancies alleged by the opposition have not been investigated, I said it looked like the United States and the EU are prepared to accept the results. The head of the EU election monitoring group emphasized publicly that the elections were peaceful and the turnout was apparently high.
This is a significant change from the response by the head of the EU monitoring group in 2005, when Ana Gomes essentially condemned the elections. The United States did not have an election monitoring team in Ethiopia this year and has otherwise been quiet about the outcome.
But unless there is proof of egregious discrepancies, the United States will almost certainly accept the results.
You can read RFI's story here. The audio is embedded below.
David Shinn, former U.S. ambassador to Ethiopia. Source: RFI
