Spokesperson of Ethiopia’s election body, Solyana Shimeles
ADDIS ABABA, May 26 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Ethiopia has announced that it will hold elections on June 21 after several deferments to deal with what officials called logistical issues and allow more voters to register for the polls.
The election is seen as the biggest test to the popularity of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
National elections are deemed the best way to cement PM Abiy’s legitimacy that is needed to reunite the country that has been polarized for decades.
Birtukan Mideksa, chair of the National Election Board of Ethiopia [NEBE], announced that elections will now be held on June 21, except in the volatile Tigray region, now considered a warzone.
Mrs. Birtukan met with a number of political party representatives on May 15 to explain the need to delay the national elections slated for June 5, by at least three weeks.
Low voter registration, logistical challenges, security concerns in distributing poll materials, training of electoral staff, and more time needed to print ballot papers were her major reasons for postponing the election. NEBE said the new date is a result of consultations with stakeholders in the country.
Against the backdrop of the raging war in Tigray, the US Senate passed a resolution to compel Eritrean troops to immediately leave the war-ravaged region, where they have been accused of atrocities against civilians, including blocking or looting humanitarian aid.
Asmara denies the charges, but the pressure from Washington means that Addis Ababa’s earlier promise to have Eritrean troops leave the region has been unmet.
This is the second time the elections have been delayed. They were initially scheduled for August 2020 but were postponed due to the outbreak of Covid-19.
The latest postponement of the election comes as major opposition parties, especially in Oromia region, continue boycotting the polls protesting the detention of their leaders.
Officially, the Ethiopian government has not cited the Tigray conflict among the reasons for delays. In fact, officials say the focus is on providing humanitarian support and “speeding up the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the region,” according to a fact sheet provided by the Ethiopian government.
“Ethiopia has postponed the election because of the delays in opening polling stations and voter registration. All political parties in the country have launched their election campaigns for the past few weeks,” said Meles Alem-Tekea, Ethiopia’s ambassador to Kenya.
Meles said some 200 international observers, including the African Union, the UN, the US and Russia have agreed to send teams. He said civil society groups will also be allowed in.
But the EU has refused to send in a team, arguing certain parameters for electoral observation have not been met.
Twenty national and 33 regional political parties are expected to take part in the polls. Some 36 million of the country’s 110 million people have registered to vote, according to NEBE, in what will be the sixth national elections. That figure is at least 14 million less than expected, but about one million more than the voters in the 2015 general election.
As a federal state, Ethiopia elects representatives to a bicameral legislature, composed of 547 seats for the House of the People’s Representatives and 117 seats for the House of Federation, also known as the Upper House.
In the last elections, then ruling coalition Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front [EPRDF] swept most seats as opponents were either banned or in exile. Most competing parties boycotted elections. — NNN-AGENCIES
