Ethiopia: Abiy’s Prosperity Party used repressive tactics during polls

This article was first published in Ethiopia Insight. 

After three months of exile in Addis Ababa, he was returning to his family in Assosa town. He was going back without a job, and his salary at Assosa University had not been paid for many months. But he was free, which meant that he had been luckier than many.

Days before, he had gotten word that some of his fellow party members had been released from jail. Detained without due process, his Benishangul Gumuz People’s Liberation Movement (BPLM) comrades spent months making appeals to the National Election Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) to intervene. Finally, local NEBE representatives convinced officers affiliated with the ruling Prosperity Party (PP) to charge or let go of the tens of imprisoned political opposition members.

Still, many were left languishing, unable to even make their defence in court. “We are easily arrested and stay in