Abi Ahmed won by an absolute majority

The Election Commission said on Saturday that Ethiopian Prime Minister Abi Ahmed won the country’s postponed elections by an overwhelming majority.

The board stated that Mr. Abbey’s Welfare Party won 410 out of 436 seats, extending his term for another five years.

No public opinion surveys were conducted in the war-torn Tigray area, where thousands of people were living in famine.

Due to insecurity and logistical issues, a total of one in five people in the country failed to vote.

Another round of elections is tentatively scheduled to be held in the affected areas on September 6, but Tigray has no voting date.

Due to the pandemic, the election has been postponed.

Mr. Abi, the Nobel Peace Prize winner, said in a statement on Twitter that the vote was “a historic and inclusive election.”

A new government is expected to be formed in October. However, people worry about the integrity of the election.

The opposition parties complained that the government’s suppression of their officials disrupted their plans.

Berhanu Nega said that after observers in some areas were blocked by local officials and militias, his political party, the Ethiopian Social Justice Citizens Organization, filed more than 200 complaints.

Abiy election victory suffers from crisis

BBC Africa Correspondent Vivienne Nunis

Ensuring a majority of seats in the parliament gives Prime Minister Abbey the task of governing, but the focus is not on celebration, but quickly shifting to how he will respond to increasingly severe challenges.

The devastating war in Tigray, which he declared victory prematurely, has killed thousands of Ethiopians, displaced millions, and left hundreds of thousands facing famine.

His government was also accused of cutting off electricity and telephone lines throughout the area, allowing the hospital to run on generators.

He unilaterally declared a ceasefire and did not get the attention of the Tigray rebels, who continued to fight Eritrean soldiers and Amharic militias.

The story goes on

The victory of this election will not help to improve Mr. Abi’s reputation in the eyes of the international community. His next move will be closely watched at home and abroad.

The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC), which is part of the country, stated that the stations it observed “have no serious or widespread violations of human rights.”

However, in a preliminary report, the EHRC stated that some electoral districts have experienced “improper arrests”, voter intimidation, and “harassment” by observers and journalists.

It also stated that it had observed several killings a few days before the vote in Oromia State.

In May, the European Union accused Ethiopia of failing to guarantee the independence of its elections.

This election is Abiy’s first election test since he came to power in 2018.

After the border war that killed tens of thousands of people from 1998 to 2000, he cracked down on corruption, released political prisoners, appointed more women to the cabinet, and reconciled with neighboring Eritrea.

He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019, but just a year later, he launched a military operation in his own country. After taking the military base in what Mr. Abi believed was a bidding, he deployed the army Go to Tigray to overthrow him with the overthrow of TPLF, the ruling party in the region.

On Saturday, the United Nations World Food Program began to transfer aid to Tigray, for the first time in two weeks. Different sides of the conflict have been accusing the other party of blocking the transportation of much-needed goods.

The United Nations said on Friday that humanitarian operations have been restricted due to a lack of basic services such as fuel, telecommunications and electricity.