Women in a voting booth
ADDIS ABABA, April 1 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Ethiopia’s electoral board has postponed August’s highly anticipated general election because of the coronavirus pandemic.
A new schedule would be announced once the threat of the pandemic was over, the board said.
Ethiopia has so far recorded 25 cases without any deaths. It has also reported two recoveries from the deadly infection.
Much of its planning had been hit by the disruption caused by coronavirus, such as obtaining election materials on time and training staff, it said.
Voter registration had been due to begin in April and political parties would have commenced their campaigns late in May.
The elections will be the first since Prime Minister and Nobel prize winner Abiy Ahmed came to office in 2018. He has carried out wide-ranging reforms over the last two years.
Ethiopia was bracing up to hold its sixth parliamentary polls.
Ethiopia holds parliamentary elections every five years according to the current constitution that came to effect in 1994.
Birtukan Mideska, a former judge and leading opposition figure, was appointed head of Ethiopia’s electoral board in November 2018. — NNN-AGENCIES
