Election Board Request 541m Br for Latest Southern Referendum

Sep 24 , 2022


The National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) has submitted a budget request of over half a billion Birr to Parliament to organise a referendum scheduled to be held in the Southern Regional State. The House of Federation approved a resolution to grant the referendum during an extraordinary session last month. The residents of six zones, including Gedeo, Wolaita, and Konso, as well as five special weredas are set to go to the polls to decide on the creation of what could be the country's 13th regional state. It will be the second referendum held in the Southern Regional State since last year, when over one million people in six zones voted in favour of forming the Southwestern Regional State.


Radar

LOFTY CONSTRUCTS

A painting depicts traditional farming equipment at the Science Museum around the Arat Kilo area. Since the seizing of power by the current administration, large-scale architectural projects marked by grandeur have proliferated across the capital. The satellite city being built in the Yeka mountains, which is set to cost around 600 billion Br, according to the Prime Minister, is one such project yet to see the light of day. Some estimates put the plot size for the project at around 503hct despit...


Radar

CLEAN BILL

A queue for diagnostics at the nation's largest state-owned hospital, Black Lion. As the health sector is largely funded by development partners from abroad, decreased support as donors shied away due to the war in the North has required the suspension of several new projects. Social health Insurance slated for next year was scraped due to a budgetary shortfall of five billion Birr. With the physician-to-patient ratio titering at around 1:30,000, queues in public hospitals are commonplace in Eth...


Radar

ACRID GROUNDS

A street vendor puts up pepper for sale around the Lideta area. With agricultural produce accounting for the largest share of the nation's GDP at around 40pc, setbacks in the delivery of fertilizer have become a source of strife in rural Ethiopia. Only a third of the scheduled fertilizer of 1.3 million quintals has been distributed into the hands of farmers this year. This is despite the year being one in which the government claims to have met local demand for wheat and started exporting. Low p...