Ethiopia held nationwide elections for local offices in the kebele and woreda assemblies on 13 and 20 April 2008.
By-elections were also held for seats in the Addis Ababa City Council, and in the national and regional parliaments that were vacant due to the Coalition for Unity and Democracy's (CUD) refusal to participate at the same time.
In a letter sent to a group of nations providing foreign aid to Ethiopia, of 26 December 2007, three party leaders -- Beyene Petros (United Ethiopian Democratic Forces), Temesken Zewdie (CUD), and Bulcha Demeksa (Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement) -- desperately pleaded for their intervention: "We are drawing your attention to this critical matter of election observing because we are afraid that the manner in which the NEB is currently running the process leading up to the elections is predictably a way to a non-consensual election outcome.
"[4] The ruling party, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), regained control of the Addis Ababa city council, and won all but one of the 39 parliamentary by-elections.
Likewise, another opposition party, the United Ethiopian Democratic Forces said that of its 20,000 candidates who attempted to register, only 10,000 succeeded, and only 6,000 of those actually had their names placed on the lists at polling stations.