Borkena
Toronto – Yishak Wolday, Public Relations Head of Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Party (EPRP), on Monday announced that he withdrew candidacy for the House of People’s Representative (Ethiopian Parliament). His decision is effective starting May 18, 2026.
He was representing the Coalition for Ethiopian Unity (CEU) – a coalition of four major opposition parties including EPRP – in Addis Ababa’s Adrada Sub-city.
The candidate cited observation of absence of an enabling condition for fair and free election in the 1/9 electoral district in Addis Ababa.
EPRP and the Coalition have been warning that they would withdraw from the election if there are conditions that compromise credible, free and fair elections.
Borkena received a copy of the letter (see below) the candidate wrote to the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia. At the time of this writing, the Board has not responded to the letter.
In a related development, the Coalition for Ethiopian Unity on Sunday said that ruling party officials and security forces are extensively engaged in harassing candidates and campaign activities in Arba Minch and other parts of the Gamo Zone in South Ethiopia. It called the situation a “red line.” The ruling party has not remarked on the allegation.
Meanwhile, the coalition has called for a press conference on Tuesday around 10 :00 A.M. in the morning in Churchill at the coalition’s coordination office near Churchill in the capital Addis Ababa.
Letter borkena received from the coalition says the conference will focus on problems observed in connection with the 7th General Election.
The Ethiopian government is reportedly spending nearly 20 billion birr on the election. Usually, the electoral board gets financial aid from non-state actors from overseas. Not this time.
Over 50.5 million voters are registered, according to information from the election board.
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EPRP, Derg, Meison, TPLF, EPLF/ELF, etc. SHOULD BE BANNED from Ethiopian Soil! The Red Terror Memorial was erected to condemn those crooks for co-causing that horror!
I equally condemn Haile-Selassie’s Greedy Monarchy for failing to airdrop 100g [10¢] bread for the ≈200K drought-stricken famine victims and exposing Ethiopia to that Bunch of Barbarians!
It saddens mr1 to hear this young man is quitting before the election day. He should havewar hardened stayed in the campaign for a seat even though the odds of winning are against him. So now, what will he be doing? Urban insurrection Lenin’s 1917 style ain’t gonna happen. Even if that happens, we may as well forget about Ethiopia as we know it today, The entire 135+ million battle hardened souls will be on the move in all directions where human blood will be adored like a beautiful budding red rose. That ain’t funny, okay!!!
Weeded out version.
It saddens me to hear this young man is quitting before the election day. He should have stayed in the campaign for a seat even though the odds of winning are against him. So now, what will he be doing? Urban insurrection Lenin’s 1917 style ain’t gonna happen. Even if that happens, we may as well forget about Ethiopia as we know it today, The entire 135+ million battle hardened souls will be on the move in all directions where human blood will be adored like a beautiful budding red rose. That ain’t funny, okay!!!
Farce election or not, the govenment of Abiy Ahmed is on its last foot. Life in Ethiopia is difficult/expensive and parties and their leaders are dependent on the foreign donations for the election. The aid money is under the government and if they decide to stay away. Abiy Ahmed will stop the payment to them. Their dillema is understandable.
On the hindsight, I started wondering if this young man was not sure of him being selected as a candidate by his own party. May be deep inside of himself he was reluctant about going with his party’s choice. Also, this shows he and his party have no thorough knowledge of the election rules they were willing to participate.