Ethiopians began voting on Monday in the country’s seventh general election, choosing members of the federal parliament and regional councils in a contest that Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and his Prosperity Party are widely expected to dominate. The National Election Board of Ethiopia said more than 50.5 million people had registered to take part across Africa’s second most populous nation.
Voters are electing 547 members of the House of Peoples’ Representatives, with any party that secures at least 274 seats entitled to form a government for the next five years. Abiy, who took office in 2018 and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019, is seeking a renewed mandate against a fragmented opposition and amid widespread economic strain.
The vote is taking place against a backdrop of significant unrest in parts of the country, and polling was not held in the northern Tigray region, where the election board cited "unfavourable conditions" in the aftermath of the 2020 to 2022 civil war and continuing political turmoil. The exclusion of an entire region underscores how far normal political life remains from being restored there.
Opposition figures and independent monitors have voiced concern about the fairness of the process, pointing to the harassment of rivals and a media environment they say favours the governing party. Critics have also raised the prospect that Abiy could seek constitutional changes, including a possible move toward a presidential system, that would entrench his position.
Supporters of the prime minister counter that the election offers a measure of continuity at a fraught moment, and that his government has pursued ambitious economic liberalisation despite the headwinds of conflict, drought and inflation. The party’s organisational reach across most of the country gives it a substantial built-in advantage over a divided field.
Results are expected by 11 June. Whatever the official tally, the credibility of the outcome will hinge on turnout, the conduct of the count and whether opposition parties accept the result in a country where contested elections have repeatedly spilled into violence.