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To effectively launch Ethiopia’s upcoming general elections protecting citizens from the global pandemic, COVID-19, the Ethiopian National Electoral Board (NEBE) says it plans to deploy an additional 50,000 election facilitators.
Birtukan Mideksa, director of NEBE, told state broadcaster – ETV that the deployment and training of 50,000 additional election facilitators, as well as the purchase of additional equipment, requires the Board to invest an additional 1.1 billion Birr. This will increase the total number of election facilitators to 254,000.
The Board has submitted its additional budget request to the federal government, according to Birtukan Mideksa. The number of polling stations for Ethiopia’s upcoming general elections will also increase to 50,900 from 45,800 in 2015.
In total, the federal government of Ethiopia has allocated some 3.6 billion Birr to effectively carry out the country’s general elections, which are expected to be held in May or June. Of the total, around 2.5 billion Birr is disbursed to NEBE, the sole entity tasked with facilitating elections in Ethiopia. Some 50 million voters are expected to cast their votes during the elections.
Initially, the sixth round of Ethiopia’s general elections, which takes place every five years, was scheduled for May 2020. Meanwhile, the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic has forced the government to suspend it.
It is recalled that disobeying the decision of the Ethiopian Parliament to extend the elections, the administration in charge of the Tigray Region held elections a few months ago, which the federal government refused to recognize.
The upcoming general elections will also include the Tigray region as the election held by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which claimed that the 100 percent victory is not recognized by the Ethiopian Government.
