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By Medihane Ekubamichael
Addis Ababa, September 11, 2020 – The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the ruling party of the regional state of Tigray, has obtained 98.2% of the votes for the regional parliament, with 152 of the 190 total seats.
Muluwork Kidanemariam, commissioner of the Tigray National Regional State Election Commission Office, told BBC Amharic that the remaining 38 seats on the council will be distributed among the four opposition parties that participated in the elections.
Five parties, including the TPLF, participated in the regional elections on September 9. According to the preliminary results announced by the Electoral Commission of the National Regional State of Tigray, the number of votes obtained by the five parties is indicated as follows: TPLF: 2, 590, 620; Baytona: 20,839; Tigray Independence Party: 18, 479; Salsay Weyane Tigray: 3, 136; and Asimba Democratic Party: 774. Some 2.7 million people registered to vote in Wednesday’s elections. Muluwork told local media that 98% of registered voters have cast their vote at any of the 2,672 polling stations.
On August 6, the Tigray National Regional Council has modified art. 48/2 of the Constitution of the regional state by changing the First Past the Post clause in the constitution for the Mixed Electoral System. Consequently, the decision was made that 20% of the seats in the regional council should be made available to opposition political parties that participated in the elections, Muluwork told BBC Amharic.
Before the election, Ethiopia’s upper house, the Federation House (HoF), ruled that the election was “unconstitutional” and violated article 9 (1) of the Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE) and the result would be “null, non-binding and not applicable”.
The regional state of Tigray refused to comply with the ruling, instead blaming the federal government for abandoning its constitutional duty to hold general elections on the pretext of the COVID-19 pandemic. “The right of the people to be administered by leaders of their choice and the unconditional right to self-determination granted by the constitution cannot be stopped even with the proclamation of the state of emergency,” said Amanuel Asefa, Head of the Regional Office of Justice from the State of Tigray, to Addis Standard. HOW
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