Tigray's Election Commission has announced that it will start registering voters starting from the end of this week for four consecutive days. The regional election is also set to take place on September 9, 2020.

The Regional Election Commission already registered political parties three weeks ago. Five parties and six independent candidates have registered for the election. The registered parties and independent candidates started election campaigns last week through Dimste Woyane, Tigray Mass Media AgencyandTigray Media House. Campaigning is expected to be finished on September 4, 2020.

Candidates are set to make their announcements between August 26 to August 30, while the final election results will be announced on September 13, according to the new schedule.

However, during the discussion the Commission held with political parties, opposition parties disagreed with the proposed timeframe over complaints that there was not sufficient time for campaigning. And the final date was set without having had a final discussion with the parties, according to Hayalu Godifay, head of Salsay Woyane Tigray, one of the opposition parties.

The Commission is willing to discuss with the media houses to allocate more media airtime for the parties if they feel the time is insufficient, according to Merressa Tsehaye, a member of the Commission, which disclosed that it will transfer budgets to political parties starting August 15, 2020.

"The date was chosen after taking into consideration eventualities that may occur like complaints that may lead to court cases," he said. "We may even need to conduct reelections."

The budget allocated to the political parties for election preparation is made based on the number of seats they will be competing for, according to Meressa.

Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), National Congress of Great Tigray (Baytona), Tigray Independence Party and Salsay Woyane Tigray (SaWOT) will run for all seats. Assimba Democratic Party will be running for 13 seats in the house.

Last week, the Tigray Regional State Council approved a revised regional election law that opens space for the opposition parties to secure seats. The amended regional constitution and electoral law changed the first-past-the-post election system to a mixed system that couples the former voting system with proportional representation.

First-past-the-post electoral systems require a majority of votes in a district to win the seats and disregards all votes cast to a losing candidate. The proportional system, on the other hand, tries to account for all votes cast by offering seats based on overall votes given to a party.