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BY Staff Reporter
May 1, 2020 (Ezega.com) – The Ethiopian parliament has expressed its consent to the Ethiopian National Electoral Board’s proposal that the next general election be postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
During their fourteenth regular session, MPs backed the board’s proposal with a majority vote, one against, and 18 abstentions after NEBE President Birtukan Midekissa informed the board’s decision.
“The board was unable to carry out voter registration, offer training to electoral executives and undertake the acquisition of electoral material due to various measures that federal and regional governments have taken to stop the spread of COVID-19,” he said.
According to the Ethiopian constitution, the life of the current government expires at the beginning of next October, and therefore there must be some legal frameworks for the government to remain in power beyond October.
The constitution also states that elections must be held every five years and does not give the government explicit power to extend a term beyond five years.
On Wednesday, the government proposed four alternatives to overcome this challenge. The first was to use Article 60 of the constitution which gives the prime minister the right to dissolve parliament with the consent of parliament, in which case an election will have to be held within six months after the dissolution of parliament.
The second alternative was to extend the state of emergency that had been declared three weeks ago. The government can, with a two-thirds majority in parliament, renew the state of emergency “every four months successively.”
The third alternative is a constitutional amendment, which requires a two-thirds majority in both houses and a two-thirds majority of the Councils of regional states. The last alternative is to ask the Federation Chamber for an interpretation on the matter.
The Board had already announced that it will not be able to hold the elections in August due to restrictions imposed to prevent the spread of COVID-19, leaving the final decision to the parliament to which the Board is responsible.
The board’s proposal faced opposition from Tigray MPs who claimed that the COVID-19 threat is too risky to suspend the general election.
“The constitution offers a range of legal options to address challenges of this type. Options include declaring a state of emergency and constitutional amendment as set forth in articles 104 and 105 of the constitution. Using these legal foundations, we can solve the challenges, “said a MP representing the Tigray region
“In fact, Ethiopia confirmed cases of COVID-19. It is also true that the virus is very contagious and deadly, but it did not reach a pandemic level and, therefore, elections can be held, said the other deputy from the same region.
“We should not count as many bodies as Americans or Europeans do to declare that COVID-19 is a pandemic,” the other MPs said in a contrary response.
Finally, parliament accepted the board’s decision with a majority vote and forwarded it to the parliament’s standing legal, judicial and administrative committee for further scrutiny.
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