Ethiopia electoral board on Monday announced the second round of voting for September 30 due to logistical challenges and insecurity in some constituencies.
Spokeswoman of the electoral board, Solyana Shimeles disclosed that the second round of voting would not hold in at least 26 constituencies due to security issues.
According to her, 18 constituencies in Amhara region and eight in Oromia region will not vote for now, more than seven million voters can choose representatives for 47 federal parliamentary seats and 105 regional ones she added
Amhara has been scarred by fighting between government troops and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) rebel group, while Oromia is grappling with an insurgency by the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA).
Polling will also not take place in some constituencies in the Afar and Benishangul-Gumuz regions, the electoral board said, without specifying how many.
“Basically we felt like some of the regions, they do have other priorities, so they won’t be able to give logistical support for electoral operations in their region,” Solyana said. –
“We have not decided how and when the election will be held in these places. However, since the number of constituencies is small, we will decide when to hold the election collectively together,” she said.
Ethiopia has 547 constituencies nationally, but the electoral board has written off plans to hold elections in Tigray, which is currently mostly under TPLF control.
Ethiopia’s new government is set to be formed on October 4.
Solyana said the electoral board was aiming to release the results of the September 30 polls by October 10.
Abiy came to power in 2018 on the back of several years of anti-government protests and promised to break from Ethiopia’s authoritarian past in part by holding the most democratic elections the country had ever seen.