Ethiopia’s ruling party has secured an overwhelming majority in a landmark parliamentary poll, the electoral board said Saturday, ensuring a new five-year term for Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
The June 21 election marked the first time Abiy faced voters since being appointed prime minister in 2018 following several years of anti-government protests.
But the poll was held in the midst of a gruelling conflict in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region that has battered Abiy’s global reputation and raised fears of widespread famine.
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The vote was meant to affirm a promised democratic revival in Africa’s second-most populous nation, with Abiy vowing a clean break with repression that tarnished past electoral cycles.
A more open contest in 2005 saw big opposition gains but led to a lethal crackdown on protests over contested results.
This time, the polls were delayed twice — once for the coronavirus pandemic, and again to allow officials more time to prepare.
Even with the extra time voting did not go ahead in around one-fifth of the country’s 547 constituencies. A second batch of voting is due to take place on September 6 in many of those left out.
In other cases the electoral board was hamstrung by printing errors on ballot papers and other logistical setbacks.
But there is no election date set for Tigray, where fighting marked by myriad atrocities raged for eight months before federal troops withdrew at the end of June in the face of rebel advances and Abiy’s government declared a unilateral ceasefire.
The situation remains precarious, with analysts warning of potential further fighting in western Tigray and some world leaders denouncing a “siege” blocking desperately-needed aid for a region where hundreds of thousands face famine.
In Abiy’s native Oromia region, Ethiopia’s largest, two of the most prominent opposition parties — the Oromo Federalist Congress and the Oromo Liberation Front — pulled out entirely, saying their candidates had been arrested and offices vandalised.
Election day saw “no serious or widespread human rights violations” in stations observed by the state-affiliated Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC).
The EHRC also said it had observed several killings in the days leading up the vote in Oromia.
The opposition National Movement for Amhara filed a complaint to the electoral board over “serious problems” during the vote.
Dessalegn is one of the opposition politicians who has so far won a spot in the federal parliament, though he said the party would decide whether to take its seats only after the electoral board rules on its complaints.
“People, especially the youth, they need to be heard, so they should have a voice in the political process,” Addisu said. “Even if it may not be always successful in influencing political decisions, the fact that they are heard itself is important.”
The Prosperity Party “shouldn’t read too much” into the results given the “deep political cleavages” that remain, Tegbaru Yared, a researcher with the Institute for Security Studies, wrote this week.
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