No Fundamental Human Rights Violations in Ethiopia's Peaceful, Democratic, Participatory Election: EHRC

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | June 2, 2026 _ Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) Chief Commissioner, Birhanu Adelo, said today that its preliminary election day monitoring has found the 7th General Election peaceful, democratic, participatory, with no fundamental human rights violations.

It also noted that the election was conducted in a manner where no fundamental human rights violations were committed and met the standard international electoral criteria.

EHRC is one of the institutions that observed yesterday's election as it is granted the authority to monitor that national and local elections held in Ethiopia are conducted in accordance with human rights principles.

Through its monitoring activities, the institution is also tasked with the responsibility of ensuring that the elections meet international standards.  

Accordingly, the Chief Commissioner revealed that EHRC had deployed 104 monitoring teams consisting of over 320 members on election day.

He said the observers were deployed to nearly three thousand polling stations under more than 180 constituencies to carry out their monitoring work.  

The EHRC also observed the election by setting up a special monitoring team comprising the institution's top leadership, according to Chief Commissioner Birhanu.

"In addition to those deployed in the field, the monitoring work was properly guided through a situation room and field observations by establishing a special monitoring team composed of the Chief and Deputy Commissioners, as well as four sectoral commissioners," he said.

The Chief Commissioner added that the "special monitoring team" was also physically present to monitor the election in Bahir Dar and Gondar cities in the Amhara region, Jimma and Goma, Agaro towns in the Oromia region, as well as around Arba Minch in the South Ethiopia region.

He stated that based on the monitoring conducted by the EHRC on election day, it found the election to be peaceful, participatory, democratic, and inclusive.

The Chief Commissioner also said the EHRC has confirmed that no fundamental human rights violations were committed in the election.