The Ethiopian Parliament today approved the recommendation made by the Ministry of Health to hold general election within one year period.
The Ministry of Health of Ethiopia made the recommendation the law makers last week. The ministry indicated that the country can hold its general election taking cautious measures to avoid the spread of coronavirus. Ethiopia was supposed to hold its general election last May. But because of the outbreak of the global pandemic – coronavirus, the National Electoral Board was forced to suspend its election preparations last April.
During this morning’s parliament session, some members of Parliament are head expressing their concern of holding election before fully restoring peace in all parts of the country.
The MPs stated that some pockets of the country are not yet safe and hard to freely conduct election campaigns mentioning as example the recent politically orchestrated deadly violence and displacements in some towns of Oromia and Benishangul Gumz region of Ethiopia.
Meanwhile, the majority of MPs voted for holding the general election this year and urged the government to restore rule of law in all parts of the country and continue the ongoing dialog with different political parties. Now the National Electoral Board can start preparation again to hold the 5th general election in one year period.
In a related development, the Parliament Parliament today has also approved appointment of 40 high court judges, the recently appointed Minister of Defense Kene’a Yadeta (PhD), Minister of Mines Takele Uma (former Mayor of Addis Ababa), Attorney General Gedion Timotios (Dr.), Samuel Urkato, Minister of Science and Higher Education, as well as 50 first instance court judges.