Borkena
Toronto – 47 Ethiopian Political parties are taking part in the upcoming 7th general election. Many of them are ethnic based political parties. Political parties that are mobilizing on the basis of citizenship are fewer in number, probably less than 20.
The country’s political system and federal structure is based on ethnicity which was introduced in 1994 following the constitution which was fundamentally arranged to support the ethnic federation.
The number of registered candidates is 10,934, according to the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE). 2,198 are running for the Federal parliament. The Ethiopian Parliament has 547 seats. In the last election, the ruling Prosperity Party won over 95 percent of the seats.
The remaining 8, 736 candidates are running for regional state councils.
The Board has also announced that there are 73 independent candidates of which only 4 of them are female. As well, the election marks of parties were disclosed.
Many parts of the country – particularly in the Amhara region – are impacted by conflict which may complicate the task of administering the election.
Moreover, there is fear that another war could break out in the Tigrary region. This week, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed accused the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) of preparing for war with support from the Eritrean government. He said so during a 40 minutes long interview in Tigrigna language in state owned media – ENA.
On Sunday, the Board started voter registration. This time, it has made arrangements for electronic registration through a newly released app – Mirchaye. NEBE has announced that it has distributed tablets for election workers to register voters who prefer in person registration.
The voter registration will continue for one more month, NEBE has announced.
This year’s election is scheduled to take place in June. Over the past few weeks, political parties have been debating live on state-owned media.
The ruling prosperity party has been accused of channeling government resources for the election. EZEMA, one of the major opposition parties, also made accusations that the ruling party was imposing compulsory contributions on the business community.
The sentiment among many political parties and the public as well is that the election will not be neither free nor fair. The ruling party paints a different picture. It says it will be much better than the previous elections.
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