For the last two decades, Ethiopia has been governed by a single political party by the name of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). They came to power through more than thirty years of guerrilla warfare, eventually toppling the Mengistu Hailemariam regime in 1991. The regime’s history over the years has been shrouded in various acts of tyranny.

Thousands of Ethiopian decedents have been killed, imprisoned, abused and exiled under the EPRDF regime. The-Meles-Zenawi-led regime is also well known to have been popular more among Western leaders than its own people. The relationship or perhaps friendship or even marriage between the regime and Western leaders has meant that Ethiopian sham elections are necessary so that the relationship or friendship or marriage can be justified and attracts less criticism than it would otherwise.

So sham elections are held in Ethiopia every five years. In 2005, the then main opposition party took the “election” seriously and campaigned heavily. The people were fed up with the regime and most voted for the opposition. The opposition won and the regime decided not to relinquish power. Ethiopians took to the streets to demonstrate and more than 200 of them were shot and killed in broad daylight while demonstrating. Up to 45 thousand Ethiopian citizens were arrested in a period of two weeks; the entire leadership of the opposition was detained facing treason charges, and widespread and recurring violations of human rights were recorded.

That was five years ago and for the regime, it was time to do exactly the same last month. But this time it was different. Ethiopians knew better and consciously allowed the regime to rig the votes. After all there can only be one result in Ethiopia: that the regime must “win”. And they did. So we are told 99.6 percent of Ethiopian voters elected a tyrant regime. Or did they?

Here are what we call the amazing numbers of Ethiopia’s so-called election – numbers that can speak for themselves.

99.6%
Percentage of seats the ruling EPRDF party claimed to have won

19
Number of years the ruling EPRDF party has been in power so far after more than three decades of guerilla-fighting

79
Number of political parties that the Ethiopian regime claims to have participated in its so-called “election”

499
Nnumber of parliamentary seats the ruling EPRDF party has claimed to have won out the 536 seats in the parliament. This only left 37 seats for the 79 so-called opposition parties

$14,ooo,ooo
Amount of US dollars the Ethiopian regime said it spent to organise the election through its so-called “National Electoral Board”

32,000,000
Number of people the regime claimed to have voted. The country's population is over 79 million

7,000
Number of candidates the regime claimed to have stood in the election

2,547
Number of constituencies across Ethiopia – according to the regime

200
Number of people the regime admitted its security forces have shot and killed in broad daylight in 2005 during demonstrations against well-founded allegations of poll-rigging by the regime

260,220
Total number of so-called “election observers” deployed at “polling-stations” on “election day” – according to the regime

1,529
Number of local journalists the regime said it gave official accreditation to cover the “election”

60
Number of foreign journalists the regime said it gave official accreditation to cover the “election”

40, 000
Number of so-called “internal election observers” the regime claimed to have deployed across the country