The Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party (EPRP) announced plans to hold peaceful demonstrations on 8 May 2026 across ten cities, including Addis Ababa, stating it will proceed with or without authorization from the National Election Board of Ethiopia (NEBE).
Mistireslassie Tamrat, EPRP general secretary, told Addis Standard that the party formally notified NEBE of its protest plans but has received no response. The party announced the demonstrations on 8 April 2026, citing a lack of conducive electoral conditions ahead of Ethiopia's June 2026 general elections.
The EPRP's stated grievances include ongoing armed conflicts in several regions, restrictions on political actors, and conditions the party argues could undermine the credibility and inclusiveness of the electoral process. Preparations are reportedly ongoing across all ten cities, with party organizers expressing confidence in readiness for simultaneous protests.
The dispute centers on a long-standing legal question: whether Ethiopian law requires opposition parties to obtain permission from authorities before holding public demonstrations, or whether advance notification alone is sufficient.
The EPRP argues that Article 30 of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Constitution guarantees the right to peaceful assembly and demonstration, requiring only that organizers provide advance notification to relevant authorities. The text of the provision does not explicitly condition the right on prior approval. The party raised this notification-versus-permission distinction during the signing of the electoral code of conduct, signaling that the disagreement predates the current protest announcement.
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NEBE has justified its permission-based framework by arguing that a managed system helps prevent scheduling conflicts when multiple parties seek to hold events at the same time and place. The board has not publicly responded to the EPRP's notification regarding the 8 May demonstrations.
"We will proceed outside the electoral board's framework if necessary," Mistireslassie told Addis Standard, invoking the party's constitutional right to assembly.
The EPRP's willingness to bypass the board's authorization process marks a notable escalation in the party's pre-election posture. Founded in 1972, the EPRP is one of Ethiopia's oldest political organizations, having played a significant role during the Derg era and in subsequent decades of opposition politics. Its decision to publicly challenge NEBE's procedural authority carries weight beyond the immediate question of a single protest.
The party is not alone in raising concerns about the electoral environment. Several other opposition parties have questioned whether the conditions for credible elections exist, pointing to security challenges, restrictions on campaigning, and administrative obstacles. The EPRP's planned demonstrations add an opposition-perspective layer to a pre-election period that has also seen the government report 46.7 million voter registrations for the June polls and the arrest of 138 suspected terrorists in operations authorities described as security preparations.
The notification-versus-permission tension is not new in Ethiopian politics. Opposition parties have for years argued that authorities use procedural requirements to effectively block lawful demonstrations, a claim successive governments have denied. Past protest movements — including the widespread 2015–2018 demonstrations in Oromia and Amhara regions — were met with security force responses that drew international criticism and contributed to the political transition that brought the current administration to power. Ethiopia's legal framework on public assembly has remained largely unchanged since then. The EPRP's planned defiance of NEBE's framework, one month before a general election, tests whether the current political order will accommodate opposition mobilization or treat unauthorized demonstrations as a security matter. The outcome on 8 May could set a precedent for how the remaining weeks of the campaign season unfold.
