Tale of Two Ethiopias - Global Success vs Internal Unrest

As Ethiopia's utterly unsurprising election results come in, they will undoubtedly be digested abroad according to one of two very different narratives. One will focus on Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and his Prosperity Party's resounding victory and interpret the results as an encouraging sign that the country will stay the course of his reform agenda. The other will emphasize the highly constrained political space in which the elections were held, and the parts of the country in which insecurity made it impossible to hold elections at all, writes Michelle Gavin for the Council on Foreign Relations.

InFocus

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed casts his vote in Ethiopia’s 7th General Election on June 1, 2026, in his hometown of Beshasha.

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