Ethiopia’s Electoral Commission has announced the postponement of the country’s parliamentary elections scheduled for June 5 due to growing logistical difficulties.
Election Commission Chairperson Birtukan Mideksa, made the announcement saying “the vote will not take place on June 5,” and she can not provide a new date until she has reviewed proposals from political parties.
She added that the commission is behind schedule on finalizing voter registration, training electoral staff, printing and distributing ballot papers and “it proved almost impossible to achieve all of this by the dates initially set.”
The new date would take into account the rainy season which runs from about June to September.
Last week, only 37 million people had enrolled for the exercise, out of a population of 110 million.
The success of the exercise has also been undermined by the conflict in Tigray and ongoing deadly violence in the Benishangul-Gumuz, Oromia and Afar regions
This is the third time the polls meant to usher in new national and regional parliamentarians is being postponed owing to violence.