An election does not end when the votes are counted. What happens around it, who can speak, organise, access information, participate and hold institutions to account, can shape the quality of democracy long after election day.

As Ethiopia moved beyond its 7th General Election, the question of what the electoral period revealed about the country’s civic space became increasingly important. On 17 September 2026, the Consortium of Ethiopian Human Rights Organizations (CEHRO), with financial support from the European Union through the AHEAD Africa project, convened a national high-level multi-stakeholder Country Forum in Addis Ababa to take stock of those lessons and look ahead.

The discussion drew on CEHRO’s monitoring of civic space before, during and after the election, moving beyond documenting challenges to exploring what could be done about them. Participants discussed freedom of expression and association, access to information, citizen participation and the increasingly important digital civic space, while experiences from Kenya and Somalia offered a wider regional perspective. The forum ultimately turned evidence and diverse experiences into a shared conversation on practical reforms, advocacy priorities and ways to sustain meaningful civic and democratic participation beyond election day.

The discussions translated these findings into concrete priorities for strengthening civic space, improving post-election accountability and supporting meaningful citizen participation, while identifying areas for continued engagement among key stakeholders.