Abstract Ethiopia is a large state in the African continent with a long political history of struggle against undemocratic governance using both peaceful and violent mechanisms. The focus of this study is about Ethiopia’s political transition since the mid-2018. In doing so, the study explores the nature, challenges, and prospects of the political transition by using a qualitative research approach, and a qualitative case study research design by referring to a wide range of primary and secondary sources. The essential data was collected from various key informants and multiple documentary sources. Key informants for interview were selected through purposive and snowball sampling techniques. The data collected from both primary and secondary sources were analyzed by using methods of thematic and discourse analysis. The findings of the study divulge that political power rupture within the coalition of the TPLF/EPRDF regime followed by political elites collaboration among the two sister parties of OPDO and ANDM removed the strongest authoritarian rule of the TPLF from the Ethiopian politics at the center. Hence, the mode of the transition was labeled a transition from above. Political liberalization, the institutionalization of the party system, and the coming of ‘Medemer’ as a discourse of transition were the operational progress of the transition. However, miscarriage of transitional justice and reconciliation, failure in negotiating transition, relapse of authoritarian legacy, the politicization of ethnicity, weak central government, politicized security forces, problems posed by the regional state of the Ethiopian federation and the absence of visible transitional political road map were found as the challenges of the transition. Finally, mass mobilization and political elites being the engine of transition, the upcoming national election, if it is free, fair and competitive, and COVID-19 pandemic were revealed as the prospects for Ethiopia’s transition. Keyword: Democracy, Ethiopia, Medemer, Political transition