156. Ethiopia held its fourth parliamentary elections on 23 May 2010 when the ruling EPRDF party won 499 of the 547 seats in parliament. According to the election results released by the National Election Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) on 21 June 2010, the EPRDF won a landslide victory in 9 of the 11 regions and cities, where 93 percent of eligible voters participated in the elections. African Union (AU) election observers reported that the election was completely “free and fair” and met all AU election standards. Although the opposition parties rejected the election results as being “completely fraudulent” and reported pre-election intimidation, the AU observer team found no evidence to support the opposition’s charges. President Ketumile Masire, chief AU observer and former president of Botswana noted that the AU was unable to observe the pre-election period and could not, therefore, verify allegations of intimidation. Table 3. Final Results of the 2010 General Election No. Party Results Obtained 1 The Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) 499 2 The Somali  People’s Democratic Party (SPDP) 24 3 The  Benishangul Gumuz Peoples Democratic Party (BGPDP) 9 4 The Afar National Democratic Party (ANDP) 8 5 The Gambela People’s Unity Democratic Movement (GPUDM) 3 6 The Harari National League (HNL) 1 7 The Argoba People Democratic Organisation (APDO) 1 8 The Ethiopian Federal Democratic Unity Forum (Medrek) 1 9 Independent 1 Total number of  seats in the House of Peoples’ Representatives Source: The National Electoral Board of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa. - 86 - 547