The National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) said on Monday that it will harness efforts to strengthen its geographical information system (GIS) capacity.

The GIS department is providing services to foreign observers by identifying and locating constituencies and polling stations, said NEBE Chairman Kemal Bedri at the graduation of the trainees who had been trained for a year by the NEBE and the United Nations Development Program.

The modern information system provides services with regard to information and document distribution in the constituencies and polling stations, apart from identifying constituencies and polling stations using maps and other supporting technology.

More than 25 million of Ethiopia's 71 million people have registered to vote in the May 15 national elections. Some 35 political parties will vie for seats in the 547-seat Council of People's Representatives.

Voters will also elect representatives in nine regional state parliaments that appoint members of the 108-seat Council of the Federation, the upper house.

The election, the third since the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) came to power in 1991, will be the first in Ethiopia to be held under international scrutiny although there have been complaints that local observers have been unfairly denied access.

All the previous elections have been convincingly won by the ruling EPRDF. The ruling party and affiliated parties hold 519 of the 548 seats in the federal parliament.