Ethiopia: Landslide Re-Election Expected for PM Abiy

Ethiopians flocked to the polls on Monday, with the Prosperity Party (PP) of incumbent Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed all but guaranteed to win a landslide victory.

Abiy, who has ruled the Horn of Africa nation of 130 million people since 2018, is criticised for growing authoritarianism, in contrast to his early years when he won the Nobel Peace Prize for mending relations with neighbouring Eritrea.

Despite internal conflicts, repression and high poverty rates, Ethiopia's economy is seeing fast growth thanks largely to a state-led construction boom and surging exports such as coffee.

"The coming five years will be a period of historic transformation for our nation," Abiy told reporters after casting his ballot in his native Oromia region, home to the largest of Ethiopia's 80-odd ethnic groups.

"Achieving this change will demand even greater determination, sacrifice and effort than we have demonstrated in the past," he said.

Long queues formed at polling stations in the capital, Addis Ababa, with some waiting since 2:00am.

Later, the authorities unexpectedly extended voting by six hours, saying they would stay open until midnight.

"It is a critical time to decide the fate of our country," said Binyam Gideyelem, 38, a telecoms worker voting for the first time, at a station near the international airport.

Despite the enthusiasm - in a country where the population is under close surveillance - analysts say the vote is little more than a formality to keep Abiy in power.

Abiy's PP won 96 per cent of the seats in the last parliamentary election in 2021 and is running unopposed in dozens of the 547 constituencies this time.

Independent journalists are stifled, opposition parties are divided and under-resourced, and the country faces multiple insurgencies that make monitoring in conflict areas all but impossible.

The head of the election board, Melatwork Hailu, told reporters that 143 of roughly 48,000 polling stations were not opened due to "security issues" and said voting was "interrupted" in others, without giving details.

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.

"Many challengers to the ruling PP will not contest the elections," they noted. "Some are in exile, some are banned, some are imprisoned, and many may see little incentive to abandon their armed struggle against the government."

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