Ethiopia delays elections by 2 weeks

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia

Ethiopia on Thursday announced delaying the much-anticipated 6th parliamentary elections by two weeks due to logistical and workforce constraints.

The National Electoral Board said in a statement on Thursday the elections will take place on June 21 instead of June 5.

This came amid heightened electoral campaigning by more than 46 political parties and hundreds of independent candidates vying for the 547-seat House of People’s Representatives, the lower house of parliament, as well as for seats in regional councils.

The Horn of Africa country was supposed to conduct its 6th parliamentary elections last year but had to push it to this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Even then, constituencies that have not completed voters’ registration in time or those that began the registration late would have to be skipped to vote later, the local broadcaster FANA quoted Solyana Shimeles, director of public relations with the Ethiopian Electoral Board Commission, as saying.

The country’s northernmost region of Tigray will also go to the polls at a later date due to security reasons. The region is being administered by an interim administration after the last party in power in the region, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), was deposed in November last year.

TPLF’s downfall – now a terrorist organization – came about after its forces attacked the Northern Command of the Ethiopian Defense Forces stationed in Tigray, including the regional capital Mekele, killing soldiers and looting sizable military hardware.

On Nov. 4, the Ethiopian prime minister launched sweeping law-enforcement measures in the region that lasted until Nov. 28. However, sporadic attacks are being reported in Tigray.

Hundreds of thousands of people were internally displaced while more than 60,000 fled to neighboring Sudan.

Meanwhile, Foreign Ministry spokesman Ambassador Dina Mufti said scores of international observers would monitor the elections, including the African Union and civil society organizations from the US and other parts of the world. The EU will also send a 6-member technical team to monitor the polls.