The ruling Prosperity Party and Ethiopian Prime Minister Ably Ahmed won in the general elections Saturday, allowing Ably to remain in power for another term. The Prosperity Party is expected to take more than 410 of the 546 parliamentary seats. Ably and his administration have received criticism in the past year for delaying elections two times and its military action in the Tigray region of Ethiopia, where thousands of civilians are thought to have been killed.
The election on June 21 was Ethiopia’s first multi-party election in 16 years, but with jailed opposition leaders and parts of the country unable to vote. Concerns of the integrity of the vote were raised by both the US State Department and the European Union as Ably dismissed the allegations. There will be a second round of voting on September 6 for the Ethiopians in conflict-ridden areas unable to vote in the first round.
Read more: Ethiopia’s Abiy Ahmed wins election in landslide amid Tigray conflict and voting fraud concerns