Observers Commend Ethiopia’s Electoral Conduct While Flagging Gaps in Inclusion and Coverage
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IGAD and AU missions praise institutional innovation and public commitment; cite suspended constituencies, underrepresentation of women, and uneven access as areas requiring urgent remedy.
Joint IGAD-AU election observation press conference, Addis Ababa, 3 June 2026
Two continental observation bodies the Intergovernmental Authority on Development and the African Union delivered broadly affirmative preliminary assessments of Ethiopia’s Seventh General Election on Tuesday, praising the organisation of poll day proceedings, the patience and resolve of the electorate, and a suite of technological innovations that modernised the country’s electoral administration. Yet both missions, in the measured register of multilateral diplomacy, embedded within their endorsements a series of concerns that cut to the structural legitimacy of the exercise: forty-six constituencies where no vote was held, a ruling party with agents omnipresent while rivals were barely visible, persistent underrepresentation of women at every level of process, and a polling-station threshold that strained both staff and secrecy.
The joint press conference, broadcast on Fana Television and attended by diplomatic representatives and members of the press corps, was led for IGAD by the former Vice President of Uganda and for the AU by its head of mission, supported by the former Nigerian Foreign Minister Geoffrey Onyeama. The tone from both was warm uncommonly warm, in the institutional vocabulary of election observation. The IGAD envoy departed from script to observe that, in many countries she had monitored, polling stations offered voters nothing; in Ethiopia, she encountered coffee, chairs, and in some precincts, kolo.
“I have observed in many countries and I have not seen this: people arrived before 5 a.m. for a 6 a.m. opening.”
— IGAD Head of Mission, former Vice President of Uganda
That warmth, however genuine, should be read with care. Election observation missions operate under institutional constraints that reward constructive language. The substance of both preliminary statements, stripped of its diplomatic upholstery, reveals a picture more complicated than celebration warrants.
Administration and Scale
NEBE registered 54,057,861 voters approximately 5.3 million through the new Mirichai digital platform and 45.1 million through legacy manual processes. Of those registered, women accounted for 46 per cent and men 54 per cent, a gap the AU mission characterised as reflecting ongoing marginalisation of women in civic registration. Elections proceeded across 501 of 547 constituencies, with approximately 52,000 polling stations staffed by more than 195,000 recruited officials. Forty-two parties, including coalition formations, fielded over 10,000 candidates.
Both missions recorded orderly opening, sufficient materials, and smooth processing at the polling stations they visited. The AU noted a high level of compliance with core procedures ballot box sealing, voter identification, ink marking as evidence of NEBE’s investment in operational preparation. The IGAD mission visited 28 urban and peri-urban stations across seven regions and reported no incidents during the voting period.
Polling stations were set to close at 6 p.m. but NEBE extended hours by six hours when substantial queues remained. The IGAD mission flagged that this extension was implemented inconsistently, with information flowing unevenly from the central board to local stations in the regions a reminder that technological ambition at the centre does not automatically translate into uniform execution at the periphery.
Election in Numbers
| Registered voters | 54,057,861 |
| Digital registrations (Mirichai) | 5.3 million |
| Manual registrations | 45.1 million |
| Women registered | 46% |
| Constituencies voting | 501 of 547 |
| Suspended constituencies | 46 (8 Amhara, 38 Tigray) |
| Polling stations | ~52,000 |
| Election officials deployed | 195,000+ |
| Parties contesting | 42 |
| Candidates | 10,000+ |
| GIS-mapped stations | 7,000+ |
| CSOs accredited (voter education) | 169 |
| Max voters per station | 1,500 |
Technological Innovations
The Seventh General Election marked a substantive reform in electoral administration. NEBE launched the locally developed Mirichai (“my choice”) digital voter registration system, enabling over five million citizens to self-register online using national ID documents a first in Ethiopian electoral history. Candidates and political parties registered digitally for the first time. More than 7,000 polling stations were mapped using geographic information system technology. A hybrid registration system combined manual and digital processes, and special polling frameworks were established for internally displaced persons and members of the Ethiopian National Defence Forces.
Both missions commended these innovations. The IGAD statement was particularly emphatic, noting that the reforms contributed to modernisation, accessibility, inclusivity, and efficiency in electoral administration. The AU observed that digital registration had plausibly contributed to higher registration rates, particularly among young voters accustomed to digital platforms.
Areas of Concern
Suspended constituencies: Elections were not held in 46 of 547 constituencies — 38 in Tigray and 8 in the Amhara region, owing to prevailing security conditions. The AU mission acknowledged NEBE’s commitment to proceed in these areas “once the environment becomes conducive.” Neither mission quantified the population denied participation.
Women’s representation: Women remained underrepresented as candidates, as polling station managers (averaging two of five or six officials per station), and in voter registration relative to their demographic share. The IGAD envoy called for legally mandated affirmative action, stating directly that absent such legislation, men would not voluntarily relinquish political space.
Party agent presence: The Prosperity Party fielded agents at every polling station observed. Agents from other parties were present only in some stations across some regions. The AU mission recommended that all contesting parties strengthen deployment of trained agents to enhance transparency and competitiveness.
Polling station capacity: Both missions identified the 1,500-voter-per-station threshold as too high. The AU called it “undoubtedly” excessive. IGAD recommended reducing to 1,000, noting that even this figure exceeds international best practice.
Voting hour extension: NEBE’s decision to extend polling by six hours was praised for enfranchising voters still queuing at the original closing time. However, the implementation was inconsistent: the extension reached some regions and local stations unevenly, exposing gaps in NEBE’s command-and-control infrastructure.
The AU final report on the Seventh General Election will be released within 30 days of the declaration of official results. This report was produced before counting was complete.
The Coffee Was Good. The Coverage Was Not.
When continental observers admire the refreshments and gently note that forty-six constituencies went unserved, the calibration of praise deserves scrutiny.
There is a particular art to the positive observation mission statement, and Today’s joint IGAD-AU press conference demonstrated it at something close to its finest. The former Vice President of Uganda, speaking for IGAD, told the assembled media that she had never, in many years of monitoring elections across the continent, witnessed an electorate that turned out before five in the morning and was served coffee while waiting. The applause this earned was genuine and merited. The Ethiopian voter deserves every commendation that could be offered.
But let us stay, for a moment, with what else was said in the same breath: that elections were not held in 46 constituencies. That the Prosperity Party was present in every polling station observed, while opposition agents appeared only intermittently. That women despite constituting the demographic majority were underregistered, underrepresented as candidates, barely present as polling station managers, and require affirmative legislative action before they will receive what the IGAD envoy called, with refreshing directness, “their right to be at the table.”
These are not footnotes. They are, if read together, the structural anatomy of an election that proceeded with considerable competence and genuine civic energy within a framework that was always going to produce a particular outcome. The IGAD and AU missions know this. Their statements, translated from the institutional register, say precisely this. One need only read slowly.
“If you don’t do affirmative action for women, you men are not ready to give up the power space.”
— IGAD Head of Mission, departing from prepared text
The AU head of mission concluded with a call for Ethiopia to become “the beacon of hope for our entire continent” a nation that leads Africa toward genuine democratic independence through “dialogue and compromise and not war.” One appreciates the sentiment. One notices that the country whose leaders he addressed has, since 2020, navigated a civil war in Tigray, an ongoing insurgency in Amhara, and a humanitarian situation affecting millions and that 46 of its constituencies remain suspended from democratic participation on the grounds of security. This is not a small asterisk to add to a commendation. It is a condition that defines the nature of the election itself.
The technology deserves its praise and received it unreservedly. The Mirichai digital registration system is a genuine achievement for a national electoral body operating in a country of Ethiopia’s complexity and scale. GIS-based station mapping, hybrid registration, IDP special provisions these are not cosmetic innovations. They represent institutional investment that, properly sustained and expanded, could genuinely deepen participation over successive election cycles. The IGAD mission was right to commend them.
It was also right to note quietly, in its recommendations that cybersecurity must be built into this infrastructure from the outset, not retrofitted after a mishap. Digital systems concentrate risk as well as efficiency. An electoral board that has moved boldly into digital administration must now move equally boldly into digital security.
What lingers, however, is the image the IGAD envoy offered of polling stations where, on average, only two of the five or six officials were women. This in a country where women were 46 per cent of registered voters. This in a country where women’s organisations, to their credit, deployed observers, operated situation rooms, and were present as watchers, not as decision-makers in most stations visited. The Ethiopian Women’s Federation, the Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association, Timran: organisations mobilising and scrutinising while the formal structures of the process remain demographically male. The observation missions noticed. They said so. Whether those being observed will act is a different question.
The AU’s call for inclusive and sustained political dialogue is, similarly, both correct and insufficient as a response to the conditions it describes. Dialogue, in the Ethiopian context of 2026, requires interlocutors who are not imprisoned, movements that are not criminalised, and media that are not suppressed. The observers were not positioned to address those preconditions. But readers should hold both truths simultaneously: that Tuesday’s election was conducted with genuine civic seriousness by an electorate that rose before dawn to exercise a right they value, and that the architecture surrounding that exercise was not, and has not been, genuinely level.
The coffee was good. The country deserves more than coffee.
Five Fault Lines Beneath the Surface: What the Observers Observed — and What They Did Not
A thematic reading of the IGAD and AU preliminary statements across gender equity, disability and minority access, technological transformation, structural efficiency, and electoral competitiveness.
The preliminary statements issued by the IGAD and AU election observation missions following Ethiopia’s Seventh General Election on Monday are, by the standards of continental electoral diplomacy, unusually candid. Both missions commended the conduct of poll day with genuine enthusiasm. Both also identified, with varying degrees of explicitness, structural deficiencies that deserve close reading. What follows is a thematic analysis of their findings across six dimensions that the Ethiopian Tribune considers central to any honest assessment of electoral integrity.
I. Gender: Presence Without Power
Women constituted 46 per cent of registered voters a figure the AU mission described as reflecting marginalisation, not equity, given their demographic majority. As candidates, they remain underrepresented. As polling station managers, barely visible: of the five or six officials per station typically observed, only two on average were women. As observers and monitors, women’s organisations were active and professional the Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association, Timran (“she leads”), the Ethiopian Women’s Federation but in surveillance rather than governance roles.
The IGAD envoy made the bluntest statement of the afternoon: without legally mandated affirmative action, the existing power distribution will not change voluntarily. Addressing the press conference directly, he said: “If you don’t do affirmative action for women, you men are not ready to give up the power space. So this has to be made in the law.” Neither mission offered data on female candidacy rates or regional variation in women’s participation. That gap in reporting is itself diagnostic of how systematically the question has been treated as peripheral.
II. Disability and Marginalised Access
Both missions noted the prioritisation of elderly voters and persons with disabilities at the front of queues a visible and commendable practice. NEBE accredited 169 civil society organisations for voter education, explicitly targeting persons with disabilities among vulnerable groups, with 114 receiving financial support. Special voting provisions were established for internally displaced persons a significant commitment given the scale of displacement in post-war Ethiopia and for members of the Ethiopian National Defence Forces.
The AU noted, however, that polling station size and layout in some cases compromised smooth voter movement with implications for mobility-impaired voters not explicitly named but logically present in that finding. What neither mission quantified was the actual participation rate among persons with disabilities, the accessibility rating of polling stations across regions, or the geographic distribution of stations with adapted infrastructure. Commendable intentions and measurable outcomes are not the same thing, and the gap between them is precisely what future reporting should close.
III. Technology: Genuine Innovation, Uneven Reach
The Mirichai self-registration system, GIS-based station mapping, digital candidate registration, and hybrid registration architecture represent a substantive leap in Ethiopian electoral administration. The AU mission credited digital registration with driving growth in the registered voter pool, particularly among youth. The IGAD mission offered explicit commendation, noting contributions to modernisation, accessibility, and efficiency.
Yet of 54 million registered voters, only 5.3 million under ten per cent registered digitally. The remaining 45 million used legacy manual processes. This ratio reflects infrastructure inequity rather than voter preference: digital registration requires connectivity, device access, and digital literacy that is not evenly distributed across Ethiopian territory. The IGAD mission’s cybersecurity recommendation was pointed and timely: as digital electoral infrastructure scales, so does its attack surface. An electoral board that builds boldly must also protect boldly.
The extension-of-hours miscommunication where NEBE’s six-hour polling extension reached some regions and local stations inconsistently illustrated a specific and important gap: the digital capability at the centre did not translate into coherent operational command at the periphery. Until that integration is achieved, technological ambition will periodically produce administrative inconsistency.
IV. Efficiency: The 1,500-Voter Question
Both missions independently identified the 1,500-registered-voter-per-polling-station threshold as a structural inefficiency. The AU called it “undoubtedly too high.” IGAD recommended reducing the cap to 1,000, while acknowledging financial constraints, and noted that even that figure exceeds international best practice.
The arithmetic is illuminating. At 1,500 voters per station, with five or six officials two of whom are women and a polling day that stretched from before 6 a.m. to after midnight in many locations, the burden on staff, space, and voter patience was considerable. The AU also noted that processing pace slowed when officials paused to guide voters through unfamiliar procedures a direct consequence of uneven voter education. These are not separate problems. The voter education gap and the station-capacity gap are connected: in stations where voters understood the procedure, queues moved; where they did not, they became tutorials at scale. The solution to both lies in the same investment: sustained, geographically equitable civic education before election day, not on it.
V. Competitiveness: One Party Everywhere, Others Scattered
The most structurally significant observation in either statement was delivered almost as an aside. The IGAD mission noted that Prosperity Party agents were present at every single polling station it observed. Agents from other parties were present “in some polling stations in the different regions.” The AU’s recommendation that parties strengthen deployment of trained agents acknowledged the imbalance without naming it as what it is: the visual signature of a dominant-party system in which incumbency is expressed through institutional ubiquity.
Domestic civil society observation was broader the Coalition of Ethiopian Civil Society Organisations for Election operated a nationwide situation room, and the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission deployed observers across multiple regions. But civil society and political opposition are not interchangeable functions in electoral oversight. The AU’s call for “a more competitive electoral environment” is diplomatically modest language for what the agent-presence data describes.
VI. The Absent Forty-Six
No analysis of this election is complete without confronting what could not be observed because it did not occur. Of Ethiopia’s 547 constituencies, 46 held no election: 38 in Tigray and 8 in the Amhara region. These are not marginal territories. Tigray’s exclusion reflects a post-war political stasis that the Pretoria Agreement has not resolved into civic normalcy. Amhara’s partial exclusion reflects ongoing armed conflict between federal forces and the Fano insurgency.
NEBE’s commitment to proceed “once the environment becomes conducive” is a formulation familiar to students of protracted exclusion open-ended, hostage to conditions that are themselves politically determined. Both missions acknowledged the suspension; neither quantified the population denied participation, nor assessed whether the insecurity precondition could be indefinitely renewed. The figure of 501 constituencies voting, presented in both reports as near-total national participation, quietly contains its own refutation.
What the Missions Did Not Address
Both preliminary statements confined themselves to the electoral process as directly observable: logistics, conduct, procedures, turnout. Neither addressed the pre-election environment the status of imprisoned opposition figures, restrictions on independent media, the legal framework governing party registration and suspension which had already shaped the competitive landscape long before the first ballot was cast. This is not a criticism of the missions themselves, whose mandates are defined by what they can observe and verify. It is a caution against reading their commendations as assessments of the broader democratic conditions in which the election was embedded.
The IGAD mission’s recommendation to political parties to “respect election outcomes and utilise established legal and institutional mechanisms to address disputes” is sound advice in an environment of genuine institutional independence. Its weight depends entirely on the credibility of those mechanisms a question neither mission was positioned to assess, and one this publication will continue to pursue.
A Final Note on What Was Said Plainly
In the language of continental election observation, departures from prepared text are worth noting. The IGAD envoy said, directly and without diplomatic hedging, that affirmative action for women in candidacy must be legislated that men do not voluntarily relinquish power space. The AU envoy called, in personal rather than institutional register, for Ethiopia to become the beacon its history warrants, through dialogue rather than war. Both statements reflected, beneath their ceremonial function, a genuine investment in Ethiopian democratic progress and a clear-eyed understanding of the distance still to travel.
Preliminary statements will be followed by final reports. The AU final report is expected within thirty days of the declaration of official results. Those reports will carry greater analytical weight. This publication will attend to them with the same scrutiny it has applied here.
The Ethiopian Tribune · Est. 2012 · Addis Ababa · Horn of Africa · Democratic Accountability · Human Rights
