Abiy Ahmed’s Prosperity Party Secures Commanding Victory in Ethiopia’s Parliamentary Polls

Abiy Ahmed remains in office as analysts caution about potential new conflicts.

Published On 21 Jun 202621 Jun 2026

Ethiopia’s ruling Prosperity Party has secured another parliamentary majority in this month’s vote, keeping Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in power.

The Nobel laureate was widely anticipated to triumph, as his party highlighted the government’s economic record and pledged to improve food security in a nation that has suffered recurrent famines.

Abiy, who assumed office in 2018 after mass protests toppled the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front, founded the Prosperity Party the following year. In the 2021 parliamentary elections, the party captured more than 90 percent of the seats.

He earned domestic and international acclaim for releasing journalists, activists, and political prisoners, and for lifting bans on numerous political parties. His efforts to end hostilities with Eritrea earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019.

However, critics and human‑rights groups accuse his administration of eroding those advances by detaining journalists and disbanding civil‑society organizations in recent years.

Ethiopia continues to experience violent unrest in several ethnically defined regions, including Abiy’s home region of Oromia—the country’s largest—and the Amhara region, where the militia known as Fano has seized large tracts of countryside since 2023.

A civil war in the northern Tigray region from 2020 to 2022, triggered by a breakdown between Abiy and the Tigrayan leaders who previously dominated national politics, resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths, according to researchers.

Although a 2022 peace agreement halted the fighting, Tigray’s leading political party moved in May to reassert control over the region’s administration, breaching the deal. This has prompted Ethiopian officials and analysts to warn of a possible resurgence of violence.

The vote was not conducted in Tigray, one of Ethiopia’s twelve regions, because the electoral board cited “unfavourable conditions” there.

Abiy’s administration projects economic growth exceeding 10 percent for 2026, among the fastest rates on the African continent.

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