The Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC) has registered only six candidates for Ethiopia's 7th national election, the minimum required to maintain its legal registration, and says it will not actively campaign due to a shrinking political space and unresolved armed conflicts in Oromia, Amhara, and Tigray.
Professor Merera Gudina, OFC chairman and a veteran opposition figure, said the party filed the minimum number of candidates with the National Election Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) primarily to avoid deregistration under the board's rules. He explained the party's position in an interview with BBC Afaan Oromoo.
Professor Merera cited two principal obstacles to meaningful participation: the continued restriction of the operating environment for opposition parties and the worsening security situation across multiple regions. The party said it had asked government institutions involved in the electoral process to make improvements but that "no solution was found."
"In the past, we used to mobilize and address hundreds of thousands of people. Now... we cannot even gather and speak to one thousand people."
The OFC chairman said the party had repeatedly urged the government to move from "mutual killing" to political dialogue and toward a national agreement, but "that did not happen." He argued that holding elections while security crises remain unresolved in Oromia, where fighting between government forces and the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) continues, in Amhara, where conflict with Fano armed groups persists, and in Tigray, where post-war implementation challenges remain, cannot produce a lasting solution.
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The party said it cannot guarantee the safety of its candidates, members, or election observers under current conditions. Professor Merera referenced the 2005 national election as a point of comparison, noting that the OFC had won seats in both the House of Peoples' Representatives and the Oromia regional council during that contest.
"Democracy cannot emerge from elections held in places without peace. This process will simply continue to burden the people every five years."
The OFC said it would continue its struggle through "speaking the truth" and working with political actors toward a democratic order.
The OFC's decision to field a nominal slate of candidates rather than boycott outright or compete fully represents a calculated middle path — one that preserves the party's legal status while registering a formal protest against the conditions of the election. The OFC is one of the oldest legally registered Oromo opposition parties, and Professor Merera is among Ethiopia's most prominent opposition leaders, having been imprisoned from 2016 to 2018 under the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) government. The party is not alone in raising concerns about the competitive quality of the upcoming vote; several opposition parties have boycotted or scaled back participation, though others, including the Ethiopian Citizens for Social Justice (EZEMA), are competing more actively. The 2005 election that Professor Merera referenced saw unprecedented opposition gains before a violent government crackdown that reshaped Ethiopia's political landscape for over a decade.
