A total of 5,507 political and independent candidates have registered to run for seats in both the House of People's Representatives and eight regional assemblies in the upcoming elections in Ethiopia.

Officials of the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) told journalists on Monday that 1,845 candidates have registered to run for seats in the House of People's Representatives, the lower house of parliament, while 3,662 for seats in the regional assemblies.

Kemal Bedri, NEBE chairman said that both the candidates and voter registration process had successfully ended throughout the country.

He said that a total of 25.6 million people have been registered to vote in the national elections slated for May 15.

"All the registration process has been completed successfully with a number of complaints being lodged from opposition parties where some of these are still under investigation," Kemal said.

The official said that a total of 50 complaints were presented to the board during the registration process where the majority of them have been addressed properly.

The killing of members of opposition parties, underage children registration and issuing multiple registration cards to individuals were among other complaints that were presented to the board, according to the official.

Out of the registered 5,507 candidates, 271 and 826 women have registered to run for seats in the House of People's Representatives and regional assemblies respectively.

Source: Xinhua