Ethiopians rushed to the polls on Monday, with the Prosperity Party (PP) of incumbent Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed predicted to win a landslide victory, analysts say

Abiy has ruled the Horn of Africa nation of 130 million people since 2018. In 2019, he won the Nobel Peace Prize for mending relations with neighbouring Eritrea.

There were long queues at polling stations in the capital Addis Ababa, AFP journalists saw, with some voters bringing chairs to ease the wait.

"It is a critical time to decide the fate of our country," said Binyam Gideyelem, 38, a telecoms worker voting for the first time, at a station near the international airport.

"I want to use my right as an individual," added 77-year-old Seife Desta.

Fragmented opposition

The election is "likely to be among the least competitive of the seven national elections held since multiparty democracy was introduced in 1991," Ahmed Soliman and Abel Abate Demissie of the Chatham House think tank wrote last week.

Abiy's PP won 96 percent of the seats in the last election in 2021.

The opposition is running with scant financial resources and is divided across more than 40 parties. In dozens of constituencies, the ruling party is running unopposed.

"Many challengers to the ruling PP will not contest the elections," Chatham House noted. "Some are in exile, some are banned, some are imprisoned, and many may see little incentive to abandon their armed struggle against the government."

Polling stations opened at 6:00 am (0300 GMT) and are due to close at 6:00 pm, with more than 50 million people eligible to vote across 48,000 polling stations in the vast territory.

Results are expected some 10 days after the polls close.

Armed conflicts

No election is taking place in the northern region of Tigray, due to ongoing tensions between regional and federal authorities. More than a million people remain displaced from the brutal civil war of 2020-2022.

Despite the challenges, Ethiopia's economy is growing at one of the fastest rates in the world -- expected to be above nine percent this year, according to the International Monetary Fund.

That is largely thanks to the infrastructure and industrial investments under previous governments, though recent liberalising reforms under Abiy have boosted exports despite the short-term pain for Ethiopian consumers.

Conflicts in the two most populous states, Oromia and Amhara, show little sign of slowing.

In Amhara, with a population around 20 million, Fano nationalist militias have threatened to disrupt the electoral process, though the National Election Board has cancelled voting in only eight of its 137 constituencies.

The Board insists polling stations will open throughout the vast Oromia region, covering one third of the country, where Oromia Liberation Army rebels have been operating since 2018.

Observers from the African Union, headquartered in Addis Ababa, as well as the East African regional bloc IGAD, are monitoring Monday's poll.

Ethiopia did not accept a proposal from the European Union to send observers, according to an EU source.