Civil Society Monitor Finds Polling Broadly Accessible Across the Country

Jun 1 , 2026.

Kassaw Amsalu (MD) stood in the dust outside the Yeka Health Centre, on Fikremariam Abatechan St., not far from the British Embassy, checking his watch as the morning heat began to bake the pavement.

A veterinary health professional with two young children waiting at home, Kassaw had arrived at 7:45am, determined to cast his ballot in the seventh general elections, where electoral board officials declared over 54 million citizens like him have been registered to vote.

More than four hours later, he remained wedged in the middle of a slow-moving queue, one voter among many testing the limits of voters’ patience.

"A country is not built in a single day," Kassaw told Fortune, adjusting his place in a line that stretched down the block. "By voting today, I feel I am fulfilling my responsibility to leave a peaceful and democratic country for my children tomorrow."

His vigil captured the paradox that ran through polling day across the country. The appetite for participation was visible and, in places, tenacious. However, it collided with an electoral machinery burdened by administrative oversights, uneven logistics, procedural lapses, and security risks, turning the act of voting into a test of endurance.

According to the Coalition of Ethiopian Civil Society Organisations for Elections (CECOE), civic monitoring itself mirrored the scale of the exercise.

The Coalition deployed 2,258 stationary observers at assigned posts and 891 mobile observers travelling across regional states, forming a civil grid of 3,149 nationwide observers. Its reports, released midday today, June 1, 2026, at the Golden Tulipc Hotel, off Cameroon St., (near Bole Medihanialem Church) offer a picture of a system that was operating, but under strain.

At the Yeka polling station, where 1,500 voters were registered to choose among 14 political parties for the federal parliament and 27 candidates for the city council, the delay was due to basic administrative shortcomings.

Election officials had to cross-reference every voter’s identity against a single ledger of 1,500 names. The list was neither alphabetised nor sorted by voter number, forcing poll workers to search manually through hundreds of pages for each voter.

"The absence of any numbering system or alphabetical order has subjected voters to avoidable frustration and lengthy waiting times," said Selamawit Adugna, a representative for the opposition Ethiopian Citizens for Social Justice Party (EZEMA), as the queue barely moved.

The same patience was not equally distributed across generations. At St. Markos School in Yeka Woreda 1, a high-stakes precinct featuring 112 regional council candidates, observers saw lines dominated by older citizens, with a distinct absence of young voters.

"We anticipated seeing a much stronger youth presence," said Eyerusalem Wasihun, an observer representing the Addis Ababa Youth Association (AYA), who monitored the station alongside party agents from the ruling Prosperity Party (PP) and its electoral opponents. "The weak turnout among youth could signal a growing disconnect between young citizens and formal political processes."

That disconnect appeared differently where economic disruption had already reshaped daily life. In Gelan Gura, an urban village heavily displaced by recent corridor infrastructure developments, voting carried mixed emotions.

"I cast my vote for a party I believe will build a peaceful country, a place where the youth can work," said Kuribachew Mulatu, 39, after standing in line.

Nearby, 23-year-old Selamawit Debebe offered a darker verdict.

"I see this as a waste of taxpayer money," she said after voting out of what she said “pressure”.

"I’ve no interest in knowing who wins the election. I’m just glad I am going home."

For others, the ballot remained a practical instrument. At the heavily male-dominated queues of the Koye Tulu Mute polling station, where voters moved past independent monitors, Getahun Chala, a 38-year-old farmer voting for the third time, viewed the election through livelihoods.

"I think my vote will make a difference for us farmers in gaining better access to fertilisers and other essential supplies," he told Fortune.

Beyond these precincts, the Coalition’s midterm data from 2,258 stationary polling stations showed an electoral apparatus functioning, but fragile.

Ninety-nine percent of monitored stations granted civil observers full, unhindered access to check polling files, while 17 locations barred or delayed independent monitors at the gates.

"While 99pc of stations respected independent credentials, local officials in Central Ethiopia's Hadiya Zone outright blocked observers, claiming national credentials didn’t override local ledgers," the Coalition said.

Ninety-seven percent of stations saw election officials arrive on time to organise voting materials before the official start at 6:00am, but 50 stations were left waiting between three hours or more for managers to arrive. Only 42pc of stations began casting ballots exactly at the designated early morning mark.

In Addis Abeba’s Kirkos District, observers documented unauthorised individuals entering voting booths to "guide" voters. At one precinct, a woman was “caught illicitly assisting 14 separate voters” before the station chief ejected her. Elsewhere, political parties distributed partisan literature within the legally restricted 200m radius of ballot boxes.

Staffing levels were stronger than the logistics. Ninety-five percent of stations met the legal baseline of three or more election officials present at opening. Sixty-one percent of local poll operations had at least one female official, and 31pc had more than one woman on the managing committee.

Leadership, however, remained overwhelmingly male, with only 10pc of polling stations having a woman as head chief of operations, while 87pc maintained exclusively male leadership.

More serious breaches were recorded outside the capital. In the Western Wollega Zone of the Oromia Regional State, the Coalition’s observers found officials “sealing ballot boxes and launching the vote without publicly demonstrating” that the boxes were initially empty.

Then came the reminder that administrative reform alone cannot secure democratic routine. In Central Gondar Zone of the Amhara Regional State, voting had gone smoothly until 1:10am, when nearby gunfire forced the immediate suspension of the process, according to the Coalition’s statement.

PUBLISHED ON Jun 01,2026 [ VOL 27 , NO 1362]