The National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) said Friday it has decided to conduct reelection in six polling stations on May 22.

NEBE deputy head Tesfaye Mengesha said in a statement that the board has ruled for re-election in the polling stations where polling did not take place properly.

Reelection would be held this coming Sunday in Beltina Dibaba polling station in Oromia State as a certain election executive had been caught while illegally putting in several ballot papers into the ballot box.

Polling would be held this coming Sunday in Gollojawi and Gedecho polling stations in Oromia and South Ethiopia People's states respectively since the ballot papers dispatched to the two stations had been found to belong to another constituencies.

Tesfaye said the board has decided to conduct polling in Kumuda and Abuka polling stations in South Ethiopia People's State as election executives left the polling station carrying the ballot box unlocked and were found at a hotel when bustling and hustling occurred among voters who lined up to cast ballots.

Similarly polling did not take place in Dabo polling station in Afar State due to dispute between election executives and a representative of a certain political party.

Accordingly, Tesfaye said, the board after weighing the severity of the cases has ruled for reelection in the above mentioned polling stations.

NEBE is responsible for the administration, conduct and supervision of all elections in Ethiopia's federal and state constituencies.

As both ruling and opposition parties have been claiming victory based on projections from tallies drawn up by party monitors at individual polling stations at which results have been posted, observers say that NEBE may have felt pressure to start releasing results because tensions have been raised by conflicting claims from the political parties.

Ethiopians went to poll on May 15 in the country's two separate elections to elect representatives to the 547-seat House of People 's Representatives (HPR) and eight regional councils. Elections in southeastern Somali state will take place in August.

Ethiopia's has a two-house parliament: the 110-seat upper House of the Federation and the 547-seat lower House of People's Representatives.

Source: Xinhua