Ethiopia: Abiy Ahmed's ruling Prosperity Party wins general elections in landslide victory

Ethiopia's ruling Prosperity Party won the Parliamentary Elections, awarding Abiy Ahmed another five years at the helm of affairs. The National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) announced on Saturday that the Prosperity Party had managed to win more than 400 out of 436 parliamentary electoral constituencies of the June 21 general elections. While Ethiopia has 547 parliamentary seats, the electoral board postponed elections in 111 seats owing to faulty printing of ballot papers, security as well as logistical challenges. 

PM Ahmed took to Twitter after his victory and described the vote as a 'historically inclusive election' in a tweet, adding, "Our party is happy that it has been chosen by the will of the people to administer the country."

What lies ahead after the delayed elections in Ethiopia?

Ahmed's Prosperity Party won 410 out of 436 seats but still, people are concerned that a fair election needs to be carried out. The prime minister said that the June 21 vote was the country's first free and fair election after decades of repressive rule. However, parameters like opposition boycott, war, ethnic violence, and logistical challenge had overshadowed the election in some areas. Voting did not take place in three of Ethiopia's 10 regions. Especially, the war stricken zone of Tigray where people are living in famine conditions have held the poll. Citing such irregularities another round of elections has been penned for 6 September in the affected areas. A date for Tigray has not yet been proposed as conditions still remain hostile there.

Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) view on the political situation.

In a preliminary report, the EHRC had said that some of the constituencies had experienced 'improper arrests', 'voter intimidation and harassment of observers and journalists. It also read that several killings had also been observed leading up to the vote in the regional state of Oromia. In May, the EU accused Ethiopia of failing to guarantee the independence of its election. However, The EHRC assured that there were "no serious or widespread human rights violations in the polling stations that it had come across.

All you need to know about Abiy Ahmed

Nebel Peace Prize winner for the year 2019, Abiy Ahmed just secured a landslide victory in his country's elections. In his previous tenure, he did a lot of noteworthy things like clamping down on corruption, releasing political prisoners, appointing more women members to the cabinet and made peace with neighbouring Eritrea, following a 1998-2000 border war that left tens of thousands of people dead.

In 2020, he became infamous for waging a war in his own country. He went on to deploy troops to the northern Tigray province to oust the TPLF as the region's ruling party after it seized military bases in what Abiy saw as a bid to overthrow him. The conflict in Tigray has killed thousands of people and led to mass hunger and reports of famine in the region. The 2021 elections were definitely Ahmed's first electoral test since coming to power in 2018.

Ethiopia is expected to form a new govt in October however there are still some doubts that linger around the integrity of the elections.

(with inputs from agencies)

Image Credits - AP