By: FIstum Getachew

July 7th 2026 was the day the Ethiopian House of People Representatives held its final and thirtieth session for the fifth year of its activities in the presence of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD). This closing session of the House was intended not only to conclude the years duties and responsibilities but also mark the end of the five year duration of the tenure of the MPs giving way to the new tenure after the entrance of newly elected members of parliament following the recent elections. 

On the occasion, the members of parliament were invited by the spokesperson of the House to present their queries to the premier before winding up the session with the approval of the new fiscal years budget. As usual several issues of various types were raised by the MPs revolving around the most urgent and compelling ones seeking the substantiation of the premier. Given that we are going through a variety of challenges pertaining to the security and peace of the nation, the recent and ongoing geopolitical complexities of the Horn of Africa and beyond, the implications and fallouts of the crisis in the Persian Gulf and Middle East area and its ramifications as well as the trajectory of development of the country, all these issues were all raised by the MPs. 

As usual the premier gave extensive and deep explanations regarding the decisions and policy directions of his government in response to the search for solutions for the challenges presented. 

Prime Minister Abiy began by thanking all MPs for their concerted and protracted relentless efforts and their contribution for the nation with their hard work during the past five years of their tenure in the House, for the active participation they showed and their concern and performance in their search to deliver the responsibilities they were entrusted with by their constituents. This referred to all MPs including the opposition forces who contributed to the discussions and debates when there were legislative activities and policies of the executive to be debated before being approved by the House. 

The first intervention of the premier related to the 7th general election that concluded successfully despite the various and relentless attempts to sabotage it in order to discredit the government and the country. The premier said that the Ethiopian people have dismissed any and all negative influences on their right to elect the government by which they want to be administered showing their maturity and sovereignty and not be driven by those who are always bent on disrupting life in Ethiopia and arrest any form of development and progress in which the people need to engage in peace and stability. 

Abiy stated that Ethiopians should be congratulated for the kind of clear and unambiguous response they made to the call of their government disappointing the enemies of Ethiopia. Ethiopians have made a huge step ahead in terms of managing their own affairs on their own and not be directed by remote and hostile forces bent on undermining their countrys sovereignty and integrity. This is clearly in line with the history and tradition of a nation like Ethiopia, full of pride and dignity and not prone to submission to external powers. 

Talking about economic issues and the performance of the government in terms of safeguarding the interests of those who are more disadvantaged and the ones who carry the brunt of high cost of living and rampant inflation, the premier gave statistics based highlights of the governments performance and how it went ahead to tackle those issues. He began by admitting that there remains a lot to do because the issues of inflation and cost of living are as urgent as ever and are among the priorities of the government. However, he said the economy was heading into the right direction with the Home Grown Economic Reform and the first things to do for the coming new government would be to continue even with more commitment and urgency the economic performance as dictated by the reform. The premier underscored that the performance of the countrys economy has never been so bright given the various complex challenges that needed to be dealt with successfully. 

The premier said that in order to dilute the fallouts of the unpredicted sudden crisis in the Middle East, Ethiopia had to increase its subsidy on the price of oil so that the people in the lower echelon of the economic ladder do not feel all the punch of the crisis. These are unavoidable situations that are borne of events beyond the control of any country and the crisis has been felt by practically the entire world even if the impact is more severely felt in the developing countries which have less means of alleviating the pain on their economy.

The overall performance of the economy has been extra ordinary even beyond the plan and that despite the challenges, it was encouraging to see the positive statistical results in production, growth and export trade as well as according to other economic performance indicators. Unlike the negative picture that many enemies of Ethiopia both at home and abroad try to depict on the socio-economic and political situation in the country, Ethiopia is continuing on its trajectory of development unabated disproving as groundless all the negative and disruptive propaganda that enemies of the nation continue to disseminate. 

Pertaining to the security of the country the premier said Ethiopians have inflicted a heavy blow on all those forces who tried to create a dooms day scenario regarding the possibility of holding of the general election at all stating that no one would be registered to vote and no elections will be held, and the incumbent will just be pushed aside leaving its place to others! Well, the results were exactly the contrary of what those forces hoped to see. 

More than 54 million Ethiopians registered to vote and more than 90% of them chose to elect the candidates they wanted by lining up on queues patiently for hours beginning from the early hours of the morning up to the late hours of the evening in a peaceful and orderly manner. The firm belief of Ethiopians in the democratic process and their resolve to cast their voice at all cost was admired even by the international community who closely observed the electoral process from the eve up to the aftermath, and hailed it as a huge success for the nation and its leaders. In fact, many of them have congratulated Ethiopians on the successful completion of the 7th general election.  

Prosperity Party was praised for its exceptional performance and the way it run the campaign. Even opposition parties have admired the process and accepted the results without much ado. The premier said that his desire for the parliament to be as fully representative as possible was realized to a good extent.  

Pertaining to the upcoming National Dialogue Conference due in the coming days, the premier appreciated the work of the National Dialogue Commission led by Professor Mesfin Araya for the hard and very challenging work they managed to carry out successfully after four years of intense activities involving hundreds of thousands of people in the deliberations and discussions. Shortly, the final conference will be held in Addis with four thousand delegates coming from all over the country and even the diaspora. 

It is a huge historic event the premier said which has the potential of bringing all Ethiopians to one convergence point closing several divisive narratives that have been used to earn political points at the expense of the unity and integrity of the country and serve the intention and purpose of its enemies who do not want to see a strong nation. Such discussion forum was something that many citizens were detained for because they demanded it and there was no authority which was willing to prepare it, the premier said adding that now that it is prepared it would not be proper or fair to dismiss it as irrelevant or unnecessary. 

The premier underscored and reiterated that the dream of certain political forces wishing to overthrow this government by force can never be realized because Ethiopia has all it takes to defend its sovereignty, territorial integrity and the constitution as we know it today. He however said the doors for discussions and negotiation on what sort of political system should be established are always open because Ethiopia gains only from peace and not confrontation of any sort with any one. The premier said the imminent conference on the National Dialogue to be held in Addis will hopefully be a wonderful occasion to settle many issues that have been haunting the country for ages.