Jun 29, 2021

Electoral Debrief: A dialogue with civil society community representatives on the recent Ethiopian elections


The Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO), in collaboration with Members of the European Parliament (MEP) Jordi Solé and Ignazio Corrao invite you to participate at an online meeting with civil society representatives of various Ethiopian communities on what the recent Ethiopian elections mean for them, for the country, and for future cooperation between the European Union (EU) and Ethiopia.

On June 21, Ethiopia held its general elections to elect 547 members of the federal parliament and local councils in ten regional states.

Despite being the first multi-party election in Ethiopia since 2005, the vote occurred having been postponed for a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and in the midst of violence, human rights violations, political tensions, harassment of media, a recent telecommunications blackout and detention of opposition members.

As a result, according to most recent press, 110 out of 547 constituencies could not hold elections due to “security and logistical challenges”. Elections for those constituencies are expected to held in September of this year.

According to the EU High Representative Josep Borrell, the deployment of an EU Election Observation Mission was canceled, because “it was not possible to reach an agreement with Ethiopian authorities on key parameters for the deployment of an EU Electoral Observation, namely the independence of the Mission and the import of mission communication systems, something that is key for the security of EU observers, in particular in the context of a challenging security environment.”

Since the EU was not able to deploy its Mission, we will ask members from different Ethiopian ethnic communities to discuss best practices, challenges and possible irregularities that they witnessed before, during and after the elections.

The conference aims at compiling testimonies and reflections to create a report that will be submitted to the EU and other relevant stakeholders.    

To register for the event and to receive the link, please send an email with your name, role, and organisation to [email protected]