Huge turnout for federal elections

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

Millions of Ethiopians went to the polls on Sunday in elections that were widely expected to hand Prime Minister Meles Zenawi a third five-year term.

At dawn, huge queues of voters snaked around polling stations for the country's third-ever elections in what is seen as a key test of Meles's plan to introduce greater democracy in this country of 70 million.

The poll had been marred by the opposition's allegations of harassment up to the eve of voting. One of the main opposition groups, the Coalition for Unity and Development (CUD), said hundreds of election monitors had been arrested, and it threatened not to accept the results of the vote.