10 July 2021 – (EP) Ethiopia’s ruling party has won an overwhelming majority in a landmark parliamentary poll, the electoral board said Saturday, ensuring a new five-year term for the Incumbent Prime Minister Dr Abiy Ahmed, winner of the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize.
The National Election Board of Ethiopia announced that the ruling party won 410 seats out of 436 in the federal parliament.
ABOUT ABIY
Born in the western town of Beshasha to a Muslim father and Christian mother.
Fascinated with technology, he joined the military as a radio operator while still a teenager.
In his 2019 Nobel speech, he recalled his time during the brutal 1998-2000 border war with Eritrea, saying his entire unit was wiped out in an Eritrean artillery attack that he survived only because he’d left a foxhole to get better antenna reception.
He rose to lieutenant-colonel before entering government as the first head of Ethiopia’s cyber-spying outfit, the Information Network Security Agency.
He became a lawmaker and minister of science and technology.
When then-prime minister Hailemariam Desalegn abruptly resigned, the coalition’s member parties chose Abiy to become the first Oromo prime minister in 2018.
He released dissidents from jail, apologised for state brutality and welcomed home exiled groups – part of a democratic rebirth meant to culminate in the most competitive elections in Ethiopia’s history.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2019 to Abiy for his efforts to achieve peace and international cooperation, and in particular for his decisive initiative to resolve the border conflict with neighbouring Eritrea.
Abiy is married to Zinash Tayachew, whom he met in the military.
The couple have three daughters and adopted a baby boy in August 2018.
