| Election Name: | 2018 Ethiopian presidential election |
| Country: | Ethiopia |
| Type: | presidential |
| Ongoing: | no |
| Party Colour: | yes |
| Party Name: | yes |
| Previous Election: | 2013 Ethiopian presidential election |
| Previous Year: | 2013 |
| Next Election: | 2024 Ethiopian presidential election |
| Next Year: | 2024 |
| Election Date: | 25 October 2018 |
| Nominee1: | Sahle-Work Zewde |
| Electoral Vote1: | 659 (unanimous) |
| Party1: | Independent (politician) |
| President | |
| Before Election: | Mulatu Teshome |
| Before Party: | OPDO |
| After Election: | Sahle-Work Zewde |
| After Party: | Independent |
A snap presidential election was held in Ethiopia on 25 October 2018, prompted by the resignation of incumbent Mulatu Teshome.[1] It was the fifth presidential election of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia to elect its fourth president.[2]
Diplomat Sahle-Work Zewde was elected without contest to a six-year term, becoming Ethiopia's first non-royal female head of state[3] [4] and the first female head of state since the death of Empress Zewditu in 1930.[5]
As a parliamentary republic, most administrative power and the effective ability is vested in the prime minister and his government, rather than the president, leaving the president as primarily a figurehead executive. However, the president retains significant Reserve powers granted by the constitution.
A presidential candidate is required to be elected by a joint session of the upper house and lower house of the Ethiopian parliament, the Federal Parliamentary Assembly, the House of Federation and the House of People's Representatives, respectively.[6]
The outgoing president, Mulatu Teshome had been elected in 2013 to a six-year term ending in 2019, but resigned for unspecified reasons, necessitating an early election.