[1] The result was a victory for the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), which won 500 of the 547 seats.

The 547 members of the House of Peoples' Representatives (the lower chamber of parliament) were elected in single-member constituencies using the first-past-the-post system.

But as was witnessed during vote counting in some polling stations, discarding ballots as invalid was not always a clear cut conclusion.

[8] To help voters make informed decisions for the May Federal and National Elections, the Joint Council of Political Parties selected nine subjects as the agendas for televised debates between the political parties in the planned televised debating sessions.

[9] Despite these structures being in place, there were obstacles particularly from the ruling government that did not allow for an easy campaign period.

"[10] The censorship in Ethiopia makes it difficult for members of opposition parties to effectively campaign to the general Ethiopian populous, thus limiting knowledge of political candidates.

[13] Jason Mosley, an associate fellow of the Africa program at Chatham House in London, writing ahead of the elections, described the election as an attempt by the ruling EPRDF to foster "controlled" or "non-competitive" political participation by the Ethiopian people; he added that the competitiveness of the opposition parties was undermined by both "internal divisions and bureaucratic obstacles.

"[14] Merga Bekana, the electoral board chairman at the time, declared the election to have been "free, fair, peaceful, credible and democratic" while the Ethiopian opposition, including Medrek coalition and the Semayawi (Blue) party, rejected the official declaration of results, citing the harassment and abuses that occurred.