Ethiopia holds legislative elections Sunday

Some 25 million Ethiopians are expected to cast ballots on Sunday in the Horn of Africa nation with a population of 74 million, to elect the country's representatives in both federal and regional parliaments.

More than 38,000 polling stations nationwide will be open from 6 a.m. (0300 GMT) to 6 p.m. (1500 GMT). Each polling station will process up to 1,500 voters.

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) is widely expected to win a third five- year term in the country, but observers say the ruling party's parliamentary majority may dwindle under challenges from opposition candidates.

Thirty-six political parties will contest places in the House of People's Representatives, or the lower house, in the elections. The governing party and affiliated parties currently hold 519 of the current 547 seats. The winning parties then elect the prime minister.

The election will be Ethiopia's third since Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's EPRDF came to power in 1991 and the first to be held with international observers.

The two major opposition parties, which dare to challenge the ruling parties, are the United Ethiopian Democratic Forces (UEDF) and the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD). Both UEDF and CUD favor market economy and privatization, hoping to end Meles's government through peaceful means.

They object to the government's five-point peace proposal towards neighboring Eritrea. Observers say the two opposition parties are very popular among youths, university students and business people. Addis Ababa is thought to be the stronghold of the opposition parties.

Apart from electing representatives to the 547-seat House of People's Representatives, voters will on the same day elect legislators for the eight regional state parliaments and the city administration for the capital Addis Ababa.

Elections in 23 national constituencies in the regional state of Somali will be held on August 21. This deferral is due to logistical reasons, as the people in this region are pastoralists and mobile registration units are needed to register voters.

Since this requires intensive use of the resources of the electoral authorities, elections in this region cannot be held at the same time as the other regions.

The regional state parliaments will then appoint members of the 112-seat Council of the Federation, the upper house.

The timetable and administration for both elections is the same, with one single ballot box for both types of ballot papers.

Ethiopia holds national polls every five years.