ETHIOPIAN Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s Prosperity Party has taken 410 of 436 seats in the parliamentary elections, it was confirmed on Saturday.

It assures Mr Abiy a second five-year term of office after what he said was a historically inclusive election.

“Our party is also happy that it has been chosen by the will of the people to administer the country,” he said.

Head of the National Election Board of Ethiopia Birtukan Mideska said the country had managed to hold a “credible election.” 

But the US said that the twice-postponed election was “significantly flawed” and some opposition parties boycotted the poll with many leading figures jailed. 

Voting did not take place at all in three of Ethiopia’s 10 regions.

In the Oromia region two of the main opposition parties, the Oromo Federalist Congress and the Oromo Liberation Front, did not take part, saying their candidates had been arrested and offices vandalised.

No vote took place in the restive northern Tigray region as battle continues to rage between federal forces and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front.

Some two million people there have been displaced since Mr Abiy launched a military offensive in November and the UN has warned of famine in parts of the region.