Following clarification from Immigration Department that applicants for Citizenship need to get a certificate of citizenship, National Election Board of Ethiopia sent inquiry to Oromo Federalist Congress Party to produce Jawar Mohammed’s citizenship certificate within ten days.
borkena
February 20, 2020
The National Election Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) has been undertaking numerous reform measures for several months now to conduct credible elections in Ethiopia.
And they do not seem to be leaving any stone unturned, including the eligibility of individuals to be party members.
The legislation that governs the Board, which also governs political parties as it relates to election matters, states that only Ethiopian Citizens can join regional or national political parties.
There has been a controversy between the Board and one of the major political parties operating in the Oromo region of Ethiopia – Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC).
It is about the Ethiopian Citizenship status of Jawar Mohammed – former director of Oromia Media Network (OMN). He also calls himself a master of Qeerroo (Oromo youth) and as leader of the “second government” although PM Abiy Ahmed rejected in the past that there is only one government in Ethiopia.
The party argued that it accepted Jawar as a party member in December 2019 after verifying that he has renounced his American Citizenship and applied for Ethiopian Citizenship. It also asserted that he is now living in Ethiopia and that it is enough evidence that Jawar is an Ethiopian citizen.
On February 11, Ethiopia’s Election Board sent a letter to the Immigration Department requesting detailed clarification, within ten days, concerning administrative and legal procedures to acquire Ethiopian Citizenship again.
Amharic Service of the Voice of America reported on Thursday that Immigration had sent a detailed response to the Election Board’s inquiry.
Renouncing Citizenship from another country and applying for Citizenship is not adequate by itself to obtain Ethiopian Citizenship, Immigration informed NEBE (a practice in many other countries.)
Immigration Department clarified that a committee within the department looks into the application for Citizenship. If it deems the application eligible, it will recommend to the decision-making unit, and then the person who applied for Citizenship will be issued with a certificate of Citizenship.
Jawar seemingly bypassed some of the legal procedures, but he and his party’s chairman, Merara Gudina, argue that the “Immigration Department is not right.” Merera argues that he “read the law himself.”
Jawar himself believes that the Board is creating unnecessary complications. But the Board seems to demonstrate persistence in enforcing political party ethics.
The Board wrote to Oromo Federalist Congress, according to the VOA Amharic report, requesting that the party needs to produce Jawar’s certificate of Citizenship within ten days.
What it means is that Jawar has to get Citizenship Certificate from the Immigration Department, as required by the law, or do something about his membership, which he wants to run in the upcoming general election.
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My citizenship application for Ethiopian citizenship had been denied time and time again by the Ethiopian embassy in USA who keep till this day claiming I am an Eritrean not an Ethiopian, while the fact is I am an Ethiopian whose Ethiopian passport got illegally confiscated by the Woyane Ethiopian embassy in USA during the last millennium my lawyer assumes they took away my passport from me because Woyane was afraid of my popularity in Ethiopia they took my passport to prevent me entering the country and maybe start some kind of activism. same might be the case for Jawar since I hear nowadays he is very popular famous person .
Plus denying passport citizenship can result in the government taking properties of the person, since right after they denied my passport renewal request they took away all my real estate in Ethiopia from me since I had no Ethiopian passport to show them.My hard work honestly earned Real estate got confiscated from me by Dergbwhen Hailesselasie was overthrown , then again Woyane confiscated the rest of my life work real estate I had left. I hope Jawar takes office and gives our deserved passports which EPRDF stole from us . Me Being a person holding an artificial society’s passport did not help no one .not me , not Eritrea, not shabiya, not woyane , not eprdf , not pp , not USA, not Arabs, not Egypt , ….noone.
Yes I agree with you 100% I’m so sorry all this happened to you, so painful they took everything from you! All those years of hard work. I pray and hope jawar wins so that everyone will be treated equally with justice. And so that he can restore the correct (humanity) laws how all citizens should be treated!
Wushetam sile’honk inday’honu yekelekeluh? minim mels bitmelis wushet new so don’t bother responding live with your lies and deceitful nature. I anit going to believe you either. SORRY
Ethiopia does not recognize duel citizenship.
You’ve to first prove (documentation, not words) you gave up U.S. citizenship, before applying to reinstate Ethiopian citizenship.
Some people are misled by the conman Jawar who’s only interest is his own and some uneducated gullible gangsters. He does not want a prosperous united Ethiopia.
I am an Oromo and a US citizen. I can not claim any privilege until such time I legally apply for reinstatement of my Ethiopian citizenship. It is not my right rather a privilege if I am granted citizenship.
Jawar is nothing but a con man bought by TPLF and Egypt to destabilize our country for his and their interest.
I hope the IRS investigates him.
I have a dream Jawar will be the next king, if all goes to the plan. Donot post your droooling talk !
Everything must have its own rules and regulations. No person born in the country should be deprived of his nationality. And for a long time, an Ethiopian who has opposed the dictatorship and leave his country and change his or her Ethiopian nationality, but no one should prevent him from regaining his citizenship. This should be a disgrace to the Electoral Board. Jawar has done a lot for the country and the Board should consider it again, because it is popular with the people and is a member of an opposition party that can run for the presidency. Why should Ethiopian citizenship be denied if Jawar settled in his country and repatriated his previous citizenship?
For oromo it was better if jawhar did not join any party and keep struggling for his people / justice to prevail in Ethiopia.