The European Union will deploy 150 monitors for Ethiopia's elections next month, the bloc's mission says

Ninety of those observers already arrived in the country on Saturday and the rest are expected one week before the May 23 elections.

"They will observe all phases of the election from the opening of polling stations to voting, closing and counting," said the statement.

"Their findings will be part of the overall evaluation and assessment of the process by the European Union Election Observation Mission."

Earlier this month, the head of the EU monitoring team said it will remain impartial after the bloc was accused of bias by Addis Ababa in the 2005 polls.

Around 30 million people have registered to vote for Ethiopia's fourth elections since the Communist regime of Mengistu Haile Mariam was toppled in 1991.