Landslide expected for sitting PM as Ethiopia votes

A voter casts her ballot at Shalla Park polling station in Addis Ababa, on June 1, 2026. [Marco Simoncelli, AFP]

Ethiopians went to the polls on Monday with the Prosperity Party (PP) of incumbent Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed set for a landslide win.

In power since 2018, Abiy is criticised for growing authoritarianism and a crackdown on dissent, in contrast to his early years, when he won the Nobel Peace Prize for mending relations with neighbouring Eritrea.

Opposition parties and analysts fear this election will be even less open than previous votes, with the opposition in disarray and the country facing multiple internal conflicts and ethnic divisions.

The election is "likely to be among the least competitive of the seven national elections held since multiparty democracy was introduced in 1991," Ahmed Soliman and Abel Abate Demissie of the Chatham House think tank wrote last week.

Abiy's PP won 96 percent of the seats in the 2021 election.

The opposition is running with scant financial resources and is divided across more than 40 parties. In dozens of constituencies, the ruling party is running unopposed.

Polling stations opened at 6 am (0300 GMT) and are due to close at 6 pm, with more than 50 million people eligible to vote across 48,000 polling stations in the vast territory.

"Certain conditions could extend this timeframe by a few hours," an electoral commission (NEBE) member told AFP, without giving further details.

Results are expected some 10 days after the polls close.