In Ethiopia, 50 million voters are expected to go to the polls on Monday for the parliamentary elections.
The members of parliament elected in this election will in turn elect the country's next prime minister. Incumbent Abiy Ahmed is seeking another term, having been in power since 2018.
His political party, the Prosperity Party, is considered the favorite. He faces an opposition undermined by internal conflicts fueled by ethnic divisions.
This election "could be one of the least competitive of the seven national elections held since the introduction of multiparty politics in Ethiopia in 1991," according to analysts.
Abiy Ahmed's Prosperity Party won 96% of the seats in the last elections in 2021.
The June 1st vote is taking place against a backdrop of heightened tensions in Tigray. The region is struggling to recover from the deadly conflict between the army and rebels between 2020 and 2022. Since then, no elections have been held in its northern part.
Observers from the African Union, headquartered in Addis Ababa, and from the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), a regional organization in East Africa, are monitoring the conduct of Monday's vote.
However, according to a European Union source, the Ethiopian government did not accept the EU's proposal to send an election observation mission.
The results of the vote will be known in about ten days.
