AFRICANGLOBE - When Ethiopia's ruling party and its allies won 99.6 percent of the vote in the country's last elections five years ago, some wondered if a government often accused of suffocating the opposition would be embarrassed. The answer was no. "Imagine a government which has delivered double-digit growth rates for over seven years losing an election anywhere on earth," Meles Zenawi, by then the leader of Africa's second most populous nation for almost 20 years, said.