Juba, South Sudan,
July 11, 2021 – Battling both domestic and external threats to his leadership, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has won the country’s disputed election marred by violence with a huge margin.
According to reports seen by Nyamilepedia, Ethiopia’s national election board said the Prosperity Party, Mr. Abiy’s political group won 410 out of 436 seats to hand him another five-year tenure at the helm of power.
But not everyone who registered to vote did so, especially in the Tigray region where hundreds of thousands are facing a dire humanitarian situation thanks to the conflict instigated by the federal government and Tigray People’s Liberation Front.
The national electoral body has scheduled another round of elections for 6 September in areas affected by conflict. But no date has been specified for the poll to be held.
Taking to Twitter on Saturday, Mr. Abiy, a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, described the vote as a “historically inclusive election”.
Election integrity questioned
With a new government expected to be established in December, the election integrity and credibility have come under scrutiny with alleged reports on gross human rights abuses.
Complaints from opposition parties about State crackdown against their officials to disrupt the prior proper preparation to the poll have reigned supreme.
Ethiopian Citizens for Social Justice leader Berhanu Nega said his party filed more than 200 complaints after observers in a number of regions were blocked by local officials and militiamen.
However, the state-affiliated Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said there were “no serious or widespread human rights violations” in stations it observed.
But in its preliminary report, the EHRC conceded that some constituencies experienced “improper arrests”, voter intimidation, and “harassment” of observers and journalists.
It also said it had observed several killings in the days leading up to the vote in the regional state of Oromia.
