The Ethiopian Prime Minister, Aby Ahmed, now that he has won the parliamentary elections, can move on with his political and social reforms.
The 21 June election was a real test for 44-year-old Abiy Ahmed, who was appointed in 2018. Against the backdrop of the war in Tigray, the PM had sought popular approval to continue with the ongoing reforms.
On Saturday, the Prosperity Party (PP), which he leads, won the elections by a wide margin, paving the way for a new term. The “PP” won 400 of the 436 seats at stake in the constituencies where the vote was held, pending the organization of another vote on September 6 in the missing constituencies. These consultations took place in a tense context with arrests of opponents and, in the end, more than a fifth of the 547 constituencies were unable to vote because of ethnic violence.
In a political context marked by the deadly war in Tigray, this victory is not the expected turning point for Ethiopian democracy. The bloody repression against dissident leaders in Tigray, the heavy loss of life and the risk of famine have tarnished the reformist image of the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize winner, whose critics speak of a Pyrrhic victory.
Despite the unilateral curfew decreed by the government on 29 June, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPFL) is occupying the ground and has taken over many bases from the Ethiopian army. The rebels have set several conditions for Addis Ababa, including the withdrawal of Eritrean forces to silence the weapons. In a political system based on ethnic federalism, the TPLF, which comes from the Tigrayan minority, has been in power for several decades.
But with the arrival of Abiy Ahmed from the majority Oromo ethnic group, Tigrayan political leaders felt alienated from the government’s political and social reforms before taking up arms, vigorously denouncing Ethiopia’s rapprochement with the historical enemy, Eritrea.
CD/fss/abj/APA