Unusually for a loan deal, which normally receive unanimous backing, the latest Ethio-China loan agreement was not supported by a handful of members of parliament.
Presented before the House of Peoples' Representatives last Thursday for final endorsement, the Chinese Export and Import Bank (EXIM) agreed to provide the Ethiopian Government with 349 million US dollars and the two parties officially inked the deal earlier this month.
Taking a short period to reach parliament after it was approved by the cabinet, the fund secured from the bank will be spent on executing the Ethiopian Road Authority's plan to build an expressway between Addis Ababa and Nazareth.
Rejecting the bill, Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement chair Bulcha Demeksa said the loan deal needs to be scrapped.
Bulcha added that he considered the loan as a costly one and only favoured by the government because of the lack of transparency and conditions involved in dealing with the Chinese.
Government Whip Wondimu Gezahegn had tabled a motion for the agreement to be endorsed directly without a need for it to be sent to parliament standing committees for scrutiny; a normal procedure for approving loans unless a motion to endorse it quickly is not presented.
However, Bulcha said that in this instance the government was rushing the deal in order to showcase the start of the road project in an effort to sway voters before next May's general election.
The Addis Ababa Adama Toll Motorway Design and Build Project total cost is 612 million dollars, 57 percent of which will be covered by the loan with the balance to be generated from the treasury.
The planned road will be able to accommodate six vehicles at once and will have numerous feeder roads, which are said to ease congestion and reduce accidents.
The whip explained that the road, which is part of the crucial trading route to Djibouti, includes a toll system, and so the loan should be welcomed and authorised as efficiently as possible.
Twelve opposition MPs, spearheaded by Bulcha, voted against the loan agreement, while another 14 abstained. However, the ruling party's overwhelming majority resulted in 270 votes for the bill.