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· In a significant move, which may trigger controversies and bickering, the Ethiopian Electoral Commission postponed parliamentary elections scheduled for June 5 due to growing logistical difficulties
· The Commission has not set a new date for the election
· The Election Commission Chairperson Birtukan Mideksa, said that she could not provide a new date since she has to initiate a review of the proposals with political parties.
In a significant move, which may trigger controversies and bickering, the Ethiopian Electoral Commission postponed parliamentary elections scheduled for June 5 due to growing logistical difficulties. The Commission has not set a new date for the election. The Election Commission Chairperson Birtukan Mideksa, said that she could not provide a new date since she has to initiate a review of the proposals with political parties.
The Commission, Birtukan Mideksa said has not finalized voter registration, training electoral staff, printing and distributing ballot papers etc. Very little time is left for undertaking such activities. The rainy season in the country, which is between June
and September of the year, is considered not conducive for holding elections.
The Election Commission said last week only 37 million people had only enrolled for exercising franchise amongst a population of 110 million, which is very low. Also, conflict in Tigray and ongoing deadly violence in the Benishangul-Gumuz, Oromia and Afar regions have had their impact in postponing the general election. Tensions over the dam across River Nile with Egypt and Sudan are also pointed out as reasons for postponing the elections. This is the third time the vote meant to usher in new national and regional parliamentarians are being postponed. It has caused fair share of controversies and heart burning among the electorate.
