Ethiopia has set to hold its 6th national elections on June 5, 2021, according to the National Electoral Board (NEBE).
The horn African nation country had scheduled to hold its 6th national elections last August but postponed due to the threat posed by the Coronavirus pandemic.
The postponement was not accepted by some competing political parties, especially the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) which held regional elections unilaterally.
The election board on Friday said its calendar for next year’s polls does not include an election in Tigray. It said it would announce a date for elections there once the interim government established during the conflict is able to support the opening of election offices there.
For nearly three decades until Abiy’s appointment, Ethiopia was ruled by a coalition of four ethnically-based movements dominated by the party from Tigray. That administration ruled in an increasingly autocratic fashion until Abiy took power in 2018 following years of bloody anti-government street protests.
Indeed, the delayed ballot was a factor that provoked fighting between Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed led government and TPLF, which had been a governing party of Tigray region until it was ousted in a military offensive last month.
Abiy, who came to power in 2018 and won last year’s Nobel Peace prize, had promised free, fair and democratic elections for the ballot that should have taken place on August 29.
The tenure of both the parliament and Abiy was due to expire last October but was extended because of the pandemic.
MG/abj/APA