Office Head, Getahun Gebre-medhin told ENA on Friday that the number of political parties registered to compete in the forthcoming national elections has reached 18.

The political parties all together have delegated 197 candidates whole will compete for seats in the federal and regional parliaments.

Some 14 private candidates have also been registered.

Over 550,000 of the total voters registered so far are reported to be females.

There are about 1.3 million eligible voters in the city.