[ad_1]
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – The regional ruling party scored a landslide electoral victory in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, officials said on Friday, as a confrontation looms with national authorities who have called the vote illegal.
The dominant Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) won 152 out of 190 seats at the polls for the regional legislature, said election commission spokesman Abdel Guesh.
Tigray went ahead with this week’s vote, in a direct challenge to the federal government, which has said it will postpone all regional and national elections until at least next year due to the pandemic.
The decisive victory will strengthen the TPLF’s hand in its confrontation with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who is fighting to hold together a rogue federation that unites more than 80 ethnic groups in Africa’s second most populous nation.
But the vote also saw a more immediate threat to the country’s unity: The TPLF won a decisive victory over a party calling on Tigray to secede from Ethiopia altogether.
Abiy denounced the election but has not said how he will respond, beyond ruling out the use of force. The federal government contributes approximately half of the region’s budget.
Tigray leaders dominated the national coalition that took power in 1991 until Abiy’s appointment in 2018. They have said Abiy is trying to illegally extend his term and some have accused him of persecuting the Tigrayans.
Abiy has overseen broad democratic reforms since he took power and won the Nobel Peace Prize for making peace with neighboring Eritrea. But it has also faced growing internal challenges from a host of regional leaders.
“The (TPLF) has been the strongest critic of Abiy’s leadership, and this is likely to intensify after consolidating its power,” said Will Davison, an Ethiopian analyst at think tank International Crisis Group.
“However, the TPLF landslide means that the Tigrayan secessionists made little progress, and it is now clearer than ever that the federal government has to grapple with the TPLF if it wants to discuss the issues stemming from its position that the election was illegal. “
Report by Giulia Paravicini; Written by Katharine Houreld; Edited by Jon Boyle, Timothy Heritage, and Andrew Heavens
