Board Announces June 5 as Polling Day

The National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NBE) has proposed June 5, 2021, as the sixth national election's polling date. However, the election was initially planned to be held a year ago and only postponed due to the onset of the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19).

The new schedule was announced today at Radisson Blu Hotel during a consultative meeting the Board organised with opposition party representatives. The Board disclosed that it has planned to open polling stations across the country starting from today until January 24. The Board targeted 45,000 polling stations, 135,000 poll workers and close to 100,000 translucent ballot boxes.

Training of poll workers is expected to take place between February 1 and February 28, according to the schedule. Voter registration is planned to occur from the end of March to April 9, while candidate registration is programmed to be held during the last two weeks of February.

Candidates will hold campaigns from February 15 to May 31, five days ahead of election day. The final result of the election is expected to be announced from June 6 until June 28, according to the schedule.

The Board had initially scheduled to hold the general elections on August 29, 2020; however, the election was postponed after the House of Federation approved a recommendation forwarded from the Council of Constitutional Inquiry that was delegated to help the House decide the fate of the election since the parliament referred the issue. The parliament has pushed the resolution to the Council following the Board's proposal for the extension of the general elections, citing the pandemic and the restrictions on public gatherings as an obstacle to voters' registration and polling.

Discarding the House of Federation's decision, Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), the then administrator of Tigray Regional State, held an election in September. The move and other developing outstanding issues led the two parties to enter an armed conflict early last month. Recently, the provisional administration, which took over the Regional State, has announced that the election will also be held in the Tigray State.

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