Electoral Commission Declares Ethiopian Ruling Party of Abiy Ahmed Winner of Parliamentary Election

High Turnout Despite Gaps

However, the vote did not take place nationwide. According to the electoral commission, voting took place in 501 of the 547 constituencies. In the northern conflict region of Tigray, which borders Eritrea, no election was held; the region had already been excluded in the previous election in 2021. Significant disruptions also occurred in the Amhara and Oromia regions. According to the board, 143 polling stations were not opened on election day for security reasons. In several locations in the Amhara and Oromia regions, where armed groups had partly prevented voting with road blockades, voting was interrupted.

Ethiopia's electoral commission described the vote as successful despite these uncertainties and some unspecified technical glitches. Although more than 40 parties ran against the PP, the ruling party ran uncontested in 64 constituencies. The opposition party Ezema fielded only 293 candidates, while the PP was represented with 461 candidates. In the previous election in 2021, Abiy's party had won 96 percent of the seats.

Observers Call It a Formality

The ruling party's victory is assessed by political observers as little more than a formality to secure Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's hold on power. Human rights organizations accused his government of serious offenses and massively questioned his international reputation as a "peacemaker." His campaign against insurgents in the Tigray region also drew sharp criticism from human rights groups.

The conflict with the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) had escalated from late 2020 into a two-year, bloody civil war. Abiy Ahmed led his country from 2020 to 2022 into a bloody civil war in the northern Tigray region. Approximately 600,000 people were killed. The war officially ended with the Pretoria peace agreement in November 2022, but its implementation remained incomplete, with Eritrean troops reportedly remaining in parts of Tigray.

Shadow of the Tigray War

As early as November 2020, Abiy had ordered a military operation against the TPLF after attacks on army bases in Tigray. The TPLF had regarded the Prosperity Party founded by Abiy in 2019, a merger of nine parties to overcome ethnic divisions, as illegitimate and had withdrawn its officials and resources from Addis Ababa to Mekelle, the capital of Tigray. Tensions with the central government remain high there.

The Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) had exerted significant influence on Ethiopian politics and economy from 1991 to 2018, from the overthrow of the military regime under Mengistu Haile Mariam until Abiy took office. In the neighboring regions, Ethiopian government troops under Abiy are currently fighting the Fano militia in the Amhara region. Eritrea is also mobilizing its troops; the government in Asmara fears an invasion by the Ethiopian army.

Tensions with Eritrea and the Search for Sea Access

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed is determined to secure his own access to the sea, for economic and geopolitical reasons. Until 1993, Eritrea was part of Ethiopia. This previously allowed Ethiopia to use the Red Sea. After Eritrea's independence, the two countries were enemies for decades; between 1998 and 2000, they fought a war that cost more than 80,000 lives.

Ahmed was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 for his reconciliation with neighboring Eritrea. The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to him for his efforts to resolve the decades-long border conflict with neighboring Eritrea. He succeeded in defusing the neighboring conflict with Eritrea. Abiy accepted an arbitration commission decision that awarded the border town of Badme to Eritrea; previous Ethiopian governments had refused to implement the decision. Air and telephone links were established, and Ethiopia and Eritrea reopened their embassies. Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki and Abiy emphasized their "Freundschaft" through mutual visits to each other's capitals.

From Nobel Peace Prize to Criticism

Later, Eritrean soldiers joined Ethiopian troops in the fighting. Ethiopia's announcements have put neighboring Eritrea, which once belonged to Ethiopia, on alert. Ethiopia is the most populous country without its own sea access, and Abiy has expressed his intention to change this.

Abiy Ahmed built his career in the 1990s with the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) before heading the Ethiopian cyber intelligence service INSA. Abiy Ahmed was born in 1976 in western Ethiopia, the son of a Muslim Oromo father and a Christian Amhara mother. He first became nationally known in 2010 within the Oromo People's Democratic Organization (OPDO), which was renamed the Oromo Democratic Party (ODP) in 2018. Abiy was elected to the House of Representatives in 2016 and appointed Federal Minister of Science and Technology. In 2018, he took over the leadership of the then four-party coalition, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF).

Domestic Reforms and Mega-Projects

At the beginning of his term and under his leadership, imprisoned opposition members were released. Domestic political reforms under Abiy included the release of political prisoners, the lifting of party bans, the promotion of women's political participation, and the amendment of repressive laws. Abiy postponed nationwide elections; Tigray held its own regional elections in September 2020, after which the federal government declared the vote illegal and severed ties with the Tigray regional administration.

The country has around 130 million inhabitants. The Oromo make up about one-third of the Ethiopian population. Last year, the mega-dam Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) was inaugurated on the Nile, which supplies the country itself with more electricity and makes Ethiopia a green electricity exporter in East Africa. The dam on the Blue Nile, under construction since 2011, was completed; according to government figures, it cost five billion US dollars (4.35 billion euros) and was financed domestically. Near the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, what will become Africa's largest airport, Bishoftu International Airport, is being built.

Abiy Ahmed began his term as a former military officer and reformer. The originally planned announcement of the election result on June 11 was delayed by about ten days. This news was broadcast on 21.06.2026 on the program Deutschlandfunk.