(3 minutes read)
· Ethiopia’s electoral board exudes optimism about holding the Monday’s crucial vote peacefully and the outcome, it asserts, would be credible
· Yet, there are people who are raising serious doubts about the fairness of the elections
· The Election board says that just three of Ethiopia’s 49 registered parties were not contesting the poll
Ethiopia’s electoral board exudes optimism about holding the Monday’s crucial vote peacefully and the outcome, it asserts, would be credible. Yet, there are people who are raising serious doubts about the fairness of the elections.
Voting is staggered and all parts of Ethiopia will not simultaneously vote on June 21. Elections will not take place in one-fifth of the country’s 547 constituencies. The reasons are both logistical and political unrest. The Board assures that the provinces where the elections will not be held will mostly vote in September. However, in Tigray’s war-torn region where six million people live, no date has been firmed up for elections. In other places, the opposition parties are boycotting elections in protest against the lack of transparency in which the elections are held.
As reported by www.trendsnafrica.com, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s party is the most favored to come to power. Abiy Is a native of the country’s most populous region – Oromia. In most of the seats in the region, there is only one candidate. The Election board says that just three of Ethiopia’s 49 registered parties were not contesting the poll. The rest are in the fray and the propaganda that most of the opposition parties are boycotting the election is a misleading one. About 9,500 candidates are running at national and regional levels. It is more than any previous ballot, points out the election board.
