AU Says The Continental Organization “Must Not legitimize Sham Election”

Toronto – Hours away from happening, the 7th General Ethiopian Election continues to draw criticism. Opposition parties and activists have been reporting irregularities in the pre-election process.

Also, the ruling Prosperity party is running alone in more than 68 electoral districts as opposition parties are not running. In other parts of the country, the ruling party was allegedly harassing opposition party candidates and members. It is widely believed that the outcome of the election is already known.

Yet, citical voices continue to trickle. In a press release sent to Borkena, Amhara Unity, a diaspora based Ethiopian Organization, is calling for the African Union not to recognize it as a legitimate one. The press release is featured below : “The African Union Must Not Legitimize a Sham Election Held amid War and Repression Amhara Andnet The African Union (AU) was established to promote democracy, human rights, peace, and good governance across Africa.

Yet its decision to deploy an election observation mission to Ethiopia lending legitimacy to a sham electoral process taking place Amid war in the Amhara region, widespread atrocities, and repression of journalists is calling into question African Union’s commitment to human rights and Democratic standard. Regrettably recent actions by the African Union serve only to shield the Ethiopian regime from accountability by endorsing the regime’s obscene political theatre, a phantom “peace” deal with Fanos is fresh in our mind and this feels like the continuation of that grave error which betrays the victims of the regime of Abiy Ahmed. The central question is not whether ballot boxes will be open. The question is whether an election can be considered credible when millions of citizens live outside regime-controlled areas, enduring the horrors of the Abiy Ahmed war and living in constant fear of the next indiscriminate drone strike.

Today conflict has cut off a vast portion of Ethiopia from regime control. In the Amhara region following the 2023 declaration of war by the regime of Abiy Ahmed, life has become a living hell. The three-year war toll is catastrophic: countless civilian casualties, thousands displaced, over five million students deprived of education for three years, and an alarming hidden hunger crisis. Most horrifyingly BBC investigative report documenting rape being used as a weapon by the Ethiopian defense force, against girls as young as eight.

Under such dire circumstances, the notion of a free and fair election is an insult to humanity. International human rights organizations have repeatedly raised alarms about the deteriorating political environment in Ethiopia. The international Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) recently stated, “An election process cannot be considered credible, free or fair in a country where human rights defenders face systematic targeting.” FIDH further warned that violations ” reminiscent of pre-2018 repression have returned with greater intensity”, documented cases of torture, enforced disappearances, exile of journalists and human rights defenders, and the re- emergence of secret detention facilities like Awash Arba military camps as a site of secret detention and torture. The shrinking civic space is equally alarming.

Since late 2024, major Ethiopian human rights organizations have been closed for good by the regime including the Ethiopian Human Rights Defender Center, the center for Advancement of Rights and Democracy, the association of Human Rights in Ethiopia, and Lawyers for Human Rights. Ethiopia ranked 145 out of 180 countries in the 2025 Press Freedom Index published by Reporters without Borders. Press freedom is non-existent in the country even though few brave journalists continue to challenge the regime until it throws them behind bars, and subjects them to torture, just like their colleagues who are languishing in secret detention centers. Amnesty International has documented arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, unlawful surveillance of journalists, revocation of accreditations, and the closure of independent media outlets.

At the same time, on May 15, 2026, the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention released its serious report concerning ongoing atrocities in Ethiopia documenting the suffering of the Amhara people for the past eight years and calling it as genocide. The report exposed ” The tightly knit genocidal structure that the regime of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has created to ‘exterminate’ Amhara identity all over Ethiopia”. Ethiopia is experiencing a profound crisis like never before: Amhara genocide, failed governance, lack of accountability, and abandonment of human rights. These are precisely the conditions that should compel urgent action against the regime of Abiy Ahmed, not political normalization by using vote as a democratic facade. [5/31/2026 4:48 PM] Tana Tv Official: The brutal regime of Abiy Ahmed desperately craves a veneer of formal legal legitimacy.

For Abiy Ahmed, elections are not a mechanism to transfer power, but an authoritarian tool used to consolidate it. The African Union cannot be complicit in this cruel farce of a criminal regime. Africans have struggled for generations to secure the right to choose their leaders freely. That aspiration should not be diminished by institutions created to defend it.

By proceeding as though current conditions in Ethiopia are conducive for a credible election, the African Union is undermining its own democratic principles charter and eroding public confidence in its commitment to human rights and accountable governance. Ethiopians deserve a genuine democracy, not an orchestrated political theatre. Our history is deeply woven into the very creation of the African Union as its host and a foundational pillar of continental unity. By sending an observation mission to legitimize a sham election stripped of opposition, press freedom, and the participation of a large majority of our citizens, the AU has turned its back on the African charter on Democracy, Election, and Human Rights.

The AU has forsaken the very people who gave it home, trading its foundation value for a hollow spectacle of a failing criminal regime.” Disclaimer: Content in the Press Release category is provided by third parties and published as received, without editorial modifications. Borkena.com, one of the leading Ethiopian news portals based in Toronto, assumes no responsibility for the accuracy of the information. The views and opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of Borkena.com Join our Telegram Channel : t.me/borkena To Support Borkena : https://borkena.com/subscribe-borkena/ – one time support or small monthly options available. Inquire information about it : [email protected]Like borkena on Facebook To submit Press Release, send submission to [email protected] Add your business to Ethiopian Business Listing / Ethiopian Business Directory Join the conversation.

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