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By Staff Reporter
September 24, 2020 (Ezega.com) – Officials from the Tigray region have opposed a decision by the Ethiopian House of Parliament authorizing the country to hold the sixth general elections as “illegal and unacceptable.”
The rejection comes a day after Tagesse Chafo, speaker of the House of People’s Representatives (HPR), said that general elections will be held across the country, including in Tigray.
The Tigray region, which already conducted separate polls two weeks ago, said there would be no legitimate federal government in Ethiopia after October 5, 2020.
Ethiopia was due to hold its national elections on August 29, but has postponed them indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tigray Region Communications Director Lia Kassa said the nation needs to establish an interim government to hold elections across the country, including in Tigray.
“There is no legal basis for the election to take place in the Tigray region,” he said.
“Ethiopia is a great country that has a legitimate government and institutions whose mandates have been extended by the House of Federation. It is wrong for the Tigray region to have such a position, ”Tagesse said.
“The election is not going to happen in Tigray. As far as Tigray is concerned, the next elections will be in five years’ time, ”said Getachew Reda executive member of the Tigray regional council.
Despite repeated warnings from the federal government about the illegitimacy of the elections, Tigray continued to form his new government, electing Debretsion Geberemichael as regional president.
Debretsion was already serving as vice president of the state of Tigray after being elected to the position by the outgoing council in January 2018. Although he had full responsibility for the regional presidency, he was elected as a ‘deputy’ because he was not a member of parliament. regional.
In other news, the Tigray regional council approved a new proclamation allowing opposition political parties in the region to take 15 seats on the council even though they won nothing in the recent regional elections.
Consequently, 15 additional seats were distributed among five political parties based on the number of votes they obtained in the elections.
Meanwhile, a court in Lideta, Addis Ababa, ruled on Thursday that Jawar Mohammed and 17 other suspects would be transferred to a prison from the police station.
The defendants appeared in court to hear the charges, but this did not happen as two of them (Dejene Tafa and Mesteward Temam) did not appear.
Lawyers for Jawar Mohammed and Bekele Gerba opposed the court ruling to transfer the suspects from the police station to prison facilities.
They demanded special protection within prison facilities that the prosecutor rejected as inappropriate on the grounds that there should not be preferential treatment among citizens.
The defendants reportedly expressed their opinion that they are indifferent to the prison places where they are held.
As for the defendants in absentia (Tsegaye Ararasa, Dejene Gutema and Birhanemeskel Abebe Segni), the court ordered the Federal Police Commission to bring them to justice. Two of them are in the United States, while Tsegaye Ararasa is in Australia.
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