Elections postponed in Ethiopia. The electoral commission announced Tuesday, March 31, the postponement sine die of the general elections scheduled for August 29, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
In the second most populous country on the African continent with some 100 million inhabitants, the upcoming general elections are widely seen as a crucial step in the political transition that Nobel Peace Prize Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed is trying to complete. 2019.
"Due to the problems linked to the coronavirus, the electoral commission decided that it could not organize the elections on the scheduled date and therefore decided to cancel this date and to suspend all its activities," the commission said in a statement. .
No new date has yet been given by the electoral commission, which said that a new calendar would be proposed "when the pandemic is over". The official campaign was due to start on May 28 and the results to be released before September 8.
26th case of coronavirus in the country
Lia Tadesse, Ethiopian Minister of Health, announced Tuesday 26th official case of coronavirus in the country. Federal and regional authorities have imposed restrictive measures such as the prohibition of mass gatherings and travel restrictions.
የኢትዮጵያ የኮሮና ቫይረስ ሁኔታ መግለጫ
Status update on # COVID19Ethiopia pic.twitter.com/4rw7pW9Fhu
Measures that would not have allowed timely completion of some of the key stages in the organization of the poll, such as voter registration, or the recruitment and training of observers, the commission argued.
During the last legislative elections in 2015, the ruling coalition, the Revolutionary Democratic Front of the Ethiopian People (EPRDF) won the 547 seats to be filled. Since then, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has decided to transform the EPRDF into a unified political party, the Ethiopian Prosperity Party. A controversial change rejected by one of the four components of the EPRDF, the Front de liberation des peoples du Tigré (TPLF), which dominated the coalition until 2018.
Delays of the electoral commission
Long before the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in Ethiopia, opposition parties and observers had pointed to delays accumulated by the electoral commission.
Also, the date of August 29, announced in January, had very quickly aroused skepticism, since it coincided with the rainy season.
The committee then replied that it could not postpone the elections constantly, the mandate of the deputies expiring in October under the terms of the Constitution.
It was unclear on Tuesday how the electoral commission would get around this problem if the pandemic were to postpone elections to the end of 2020 or even to 2021.
"Resetting a troubled Ethiopian transition"
For some analysts, such as William Davison, researcher for the think tank International Crisis Group (ICG), this postponement could be an opportunity to remove some of the obstacles. "This postponement offers an opportunity to reset a troubled Ethiopian transition," he said.
For his part, Jawar Mohammed, one of the leaders of the opposition to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, said he was not surprised by the delay but insisted that the opposition should be consulted in the future. "We knew it was coming," he told AFP. "But the new timetable cannot be determined by the ruling party alone."
In addition to the timetable, the security situation in the country aroused the concern of observers on Tuesday.
With AFP
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