Ethiopia's PM wins landslide election as fears grow of new conflict

Ethiopia's parliamentary election has been won by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's Prosperity Party by a wide margin. According to BBC Africa, the National Election Board announced the results, with Prosperity taking the bulk of seats. A significant share of opposition parties had boycotted the vote or seen their participation curtailed.

International observers raised concerns about the process: access to polling stations was restricted in some regions, and pressure on journalists and civil society representatives was increased. Meanwhile, the long-running violence in Tigray and Amhara is at risk of escalating again. Experts the BBC spoke to said any new wave of internal conflict could have severe humanitarian consequences.

The new government's early agenda — national reconstruction, constitutional reform and the federalism debate — will be decisive. Relations with neighbouring Eritrea and the Nile Treaty negotiations sit high on the foreign-policy agenda. The government interpreted the result as the Ethiopian public's choice for stability; the opposition questioned the legitimacy of the result.