Ethiopia: Foreign Minister elected new president

Ethiopian Foreign Minister Taye Atske Selassie was elected President of Ethiopia on Monday October 7, 2024 by parliamentarians, taking over from Sahle-Work Zewde, whose term of office expires at the end of October.

Although the position of President is honorary and considered head of state, real power remains in the hands of the Prime Minister.

Aged 68, Taye Atske Selassie succeeds Sahle-Work Zewde, who was the first woman to hold the office in 2018 and one of the few female heads of state in Africa, alongside Samia Suluhu Hassan, the president of Tanzania.

“Taye Atske Selassie has been elected the new President of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia,” announced the Speaker of Parliament, Tagesse Chaffo, adding that the election had taken place with only five abstentions.

Taye Atske Selassie was officially installed as president at a ceremony attended by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

He thus becomes the fifth President of Ethiopia since the adoption of the 1995 Constitution, which limits the presidential term to two terms of six years each.

Before assuming the presidency, Taye Atske Selassie was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs in February 2024, after holding important diplomatic positions, including as Ethiopia’s representative to the United Nations since 2018 and ambassador to Egypt between 2017 and 2018.