Ethiopia’s parliamentary elections will now hold on August 29

Birtukan Mideksa

Ethiopia’s parliamentary elections has been scheduled to hold on August 29, 2020, the country’s election body announced on Friday.

The new date is two weeks later than the electoral board had previously indicated although the electoral body did not give a reasons for the delay.

“Looking at parts of the country which will be affected by the rainy season, pushing the schedule a little further will ease our burden,” NEBE Chairwoman Birtukan Mideksa said at a conference on election preparations taking place in the capital, Addis Ababa.

It would be recalled that political groups, as well as civil society had opposed the earlier date of August 16  arguing that since mid-August is the peak of the rainy season in most parts of Ethiopia, the rains will impact the voter turnout

According to the new schedule the election results will be expected from August 30 to September 8, 2020.

In January the electoral body announced the postponement of May parliamentary and regional council elections as neither the authorities nor parties would be ready

Ethiopia’s 109 million people are experiencing unprecedented political and economic change, but Abiy’s reforms have also unleashed ethnic rivalries that have spilled into violence.

Ethiopia has had regular parliamentary elections since the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) took power in 1991 but, with one exception, none were competitive.

Abiy, who won the Nobel Peace Prize last year largely for his efforts at reconciliation with Ethiopia’s neighbour and longtime foe Eritrea, has promised that this year’s vote will be free and fair.