Ethiopia: Projecting Rule of Law, Retaining Autocratic Roots - Democracy-Speak in Ethiopia's National Dialogue

Addis Abeba - Ethiopians went to the polls in June 2026. Six weeks later, the National Dialogue Commission opened its national conference, the culminating stage of the state-led process formally established in 2021. It invited the public to engage with the rules of political coexistence just as another election had confirmed the incumbent's overwhelming dominance . Through both moments, discussions were framed in a familiar language of deepening and sustaining Ethiopia's democracy. Panels of national dialogue experts, naturally a roomful of men (40 to be exact!), the sort of tableau that still passes without anyone batting an eye in Ethiopian public and political life, discussed the country's future as though the legitimacy and distribution of power were not themselves the central points of contention. The more fundamental question, whether Ethiopia's political system is democratic in any meaningful sense, remained politely untouched.