Election Body Proposes August 16 for Parliamentary election

ADDIS ABEBA – The National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) and stakeholders have started a discussion on a tentative schedule for 2020 General Elections.

The draft schedule proposes registration of voters to take place from April 7 to May 8, 2020.

It also recommends for the voting process to take place on August 16, 2020.

The board also suggests the official announcement of the voting results at the constituency level to be made from August 17 to August 21 and for its confirmed results to be communicated from August 17 to August August 26, 2020.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed confirmed last week his country will hold a parliamentary election this year despite concerns about security and logistics.

The election will be the first under Nobel Peace Laureate Abiy Ahmed, who took the prime minister office in April 2018 and launched political and economic reforms.

“On the schedule, I am not sure whether it is May or June, because the schedule will be declared by the election board but I think we will conduct an election this year because it is a constitutional mandate,” Abiy told reporters last week in South Africa.

“There might be lots of challenges, not only logistics but also peace and security … It is better for Ethiopians and for Ethiopian parties to conduct the election on time in a very peaceful and democratic manner,” he added.

Ethiopia has regularly held elections since 1995 but, with the exception of the 2005 election, no election has been competitive.