Chronology of Major Events in the history of elections in Ethiopia

•  In 1924*, the so-called first parliament was established.  The parliamentarians were essentially landlords and aristocrats directly elected by the Emperor of the time.  The parliament formed that way was functional until 1928, the year Fascist Italian army invaded Ethiopia.
•   In 1935, the second parliament was established. Members of the Senate were directly elected by the Emperor himself while members of Congress were elected by local elders. Those elected were necessarily had to be land lords. The parliament that was formed that way had stayed in power for 15 years.
• In 1948, Ethiopian peoples were allowed for the first time to elect parliamentarians. Since then a total of five elections were conducted, once in every four years. Among the criteria set for running candidacy was certain property ownership. The competition was also necessarily among individuals as there were no any political organizations. Though elections were conducted by an electoral board, its independence was in question as it was required to closely work with the then Ministry of Interior Affairs.
•  In Meskerem 1967, the monarchy regime was toppled by massive popular revolution and the state power was quickly overtaken by organized military group, known as the Dergue. While the junta has outlawed all political activities by law, it had never allowed any sort of elections until 1979.
•  In 1979, the military regime adopted its Constitution of the Ethiopian People’s Democratic Republic and issued a proclamation on elections. Though the law dictated that all citizens had the right to participate in elections, candidacies were practically made by the sole governing Workers Party of Ethiopia.
• On Ginbot 20, 1983, EPRDF controlled Addis Ababa deposing the military regime. No sooner, the victorious group summoned all political parties operating in and out of the country to decide on the fate of the nation. The unprecedented joint forum of political parties thus established the Transitional Government of Ethiopia.
• In Sene 1983, the Charter for the Transitional Government of Ethiopia was adopted by the joint forum of political parties.
• In 1984, the Electoral Commission for the transitional period was established and in Yekatit of the same year, it conducted elections for District and Sub-District (kebele) Interim Administrative Committees, whose main task was restoring peace and stability at local level, mainly with the disarmament of illegal weapons dispersed among the public by the fleeing army of the Dergue.
•   In Ginbot 1984, Elections of National, Regional and District Council members were conducted. Electoral officers then were composed of representatives of political parties that were operating in the respective localities though the chair persons were necessarily representatives of the Electoral Commission. Among the criteria for candidacy then was a signature of 50 people for district and 350 for regional councils. After the successful completion of those elections, the term of the National Electoral Commission came to an end.
•  In Ginbot 1986, the National Electoral Board was established as an independent institution, which then conducted Elections for the Constitutional Assembly. With that elections a total of 37 political groups were represented with various numbers of seats in the Assembly.
• In 1987, the First General Elections were carried out with 57 contesting political parties. 43 political parties were able to secure seats in the federal parliament and regional councils. While the number of voters registered in that election was 21,337,379, some 19,986,179 casted their ballots.
• In 1992, were held the Second General Elections. 49 political parties contested it.  19,607,861 voters casted their ballots out of the total registered voters of 21,834,806.
•   In 1997, were held the Third General Elections, wherein 29 out of 35 political organizations that contested in the elections had managed to secure substantial amount of seats both at the federal and regional levels, though some of them boycotted them later. While the number of voters registered was 27,372,888, some 22,610,690 had casted ballots.
•  2002, preparations to undertake the Fourth General Elections. As part of the preparations Political Parties negotiated and amended several provisions of electoral related  laws and codes and actually reached a historic agreement on electoral code of political parties which has been made part of the law though their consent. 63 political parties have fielded 2,178 candidates for the federal and 4,729 for regional councils. The number of voters registered is a record high with 31,926,320.
• (*all the years given in the chronology are in Ethiopian Calendar.)