Abiy predicts peaceful Ethiopia vote as parties wrap up campaigns

PM hopeful about June 21 vote held despite fighting in Tigray and instability elsewhere, as well as opposition boycotts.

Political parties taking part next week in Ethiopia’s twice-delayed polls have wrapped up their election campaigns, with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed predicting that the country will successfully hold a peaceful vote. The June 21 election will take place at a time of widespread ethnic unrest and economic challenges, as well as a months-long conflict in the northern Tigray region where the United Nations warns that at least 350,000 people face famine. Opposition parties in other key regions have said they will boycott the polls, the sixth since the overthrow of Mengistu Haile Mariam’s communist government in 1991. “The whole world is saying we will fight but we will show them differently,” Abiy said on Wednesday during his first and final rally at a packed stadium in the southern town of Jimma.