Ethiopian democracy’s stiff test

Voting is under way in Ethiopia, in legislative elections that are set to be a stiff test of the country’s democracy.

Menes Zelawi, the current prime minister, is expected to be returned, after 19 years in power.

But the opposition is already crying foul, with memories of the 2005 election that led to widespread bloodshed still fresh in the minds of many Ethiopians.

While the opposition parties are already making claims of unfairness, the public mood does not seem to be in any way as charged as it was in the disputed 2005 poll.

Al Jazeera’s Andrew Simmons reports from Addis Ababa.