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Ethiopians lining up to vote in key elections

War and famine in the northern Tigray region are overshadowing the vote.

Voters queue up at a polling station in Addis Ababa. [Baz Ratner/Reuters]
Published On 21 Jun 2021

People across Ethiopia queued outside voting stations on Monday to vote in elections described by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed as “free and fair”.

The elections are being held against the backdrop of war and famine in the northern Tigray region, with Abiy facing growing international criticism over his handling of the internal strife.

Residents of the capital Addis Ababa described the event as “a decisive day for Ethiopia” and hoped for a “government that brings us peace, unity and that will stop the killing everywhere.”

The election, delayed from last year, is the centrepiece of a reform drive by Abiy, whose rise to power in 2018 seemed to signal a break with decades of authoritarian rule and led to his Nobel Peace Prize the following year.

Opposition groups have accused Ethiopia’s ruling party of harassment, manipulation and threats of violence that echo abuses of the past.

No date has been set for voting in Tigray, where the government has been fighting the region’s former governing party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, since November. The United Nations says some 350,000 people face famine there.

Voters waiting at a polling station in Beshasha in central Ethiopia. Opposition groups have accused Ethiopia’s ruling party of harassment, manipulation and threats of violence. [Tiksa Negeri/Reuters]
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A voter casts his ballot at a polling station in Beshasha. Some prominent opposition parties are boycotting the election. [Tiksa Negeri/Reuters]
Abiy’s governing Prosperity Party, formed in 2019 by merging the groups that comprised the previous ruling coalition, is widely expected to cement its hold on power. [Tiksa Negeri/Reuters]
Staffers from the National Election Board of Ethiopia at a polling station during the Ethiopian parliamentary and regional elections, in Beshasha. The party that wins a majority of seats in the House of Peoples’ Representatives will form the next government. [Tiksa Negeri/Reuters]
Visually impaired voters cast their ballots at a polling station in Addis Ababa. Abiy said last week the vote would be the "first attempt at free and fair elections" in Ethiopia, whose rapidly growing economy was hit hard by conflict and the COVID-19 pandemic. [Baz Ratner/Reuters]
Ethiopians cast their votes in the general election at a polling centre in the capital. [Ben Curtis/AP Photo]
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A member of the Amhara Special Forces guards a polling station as voting material is distributed, in the city of Bahir Dar. [Eduardo Soteras/AFP]