Ethiopians are set to vote on Monday in a crucial parliamentary election in which Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed is widely expected to retain his hold on power, reported Africa News.
It is the first electoral test for Prime Minister Abiy who rose to power in 2018 championing a democratic revival in Africa’s second-most populous country.
The nationwide elections were delayed for almost a year due to the coronavirus pandemic, and rescheduled for June 5.
The Nobel Peace laureate, Abiy, has vowed to ensure that this election will be Ethiopia’s most competitive in history, free of the irregularities that marred previous ballots.
The Ethiopian electoral board on Sunday said it was ready for Monday’s crucial vote and assured it will be credible.
“We’re actually very confident about it,” the National Election Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) spokeswoman Solyana Shimeles told AFP.
Notably, the next government will be formed by the party that wins a majority of seats in the House of Peoples’ Representatives. About 40 million people have registered to take part in the national and regional parliamentary elections.
But in a fifth of the country’s 547 constituencies, Ethiopians won’t be able to cast their vote, as a result of insecurity, unrest, and logistical issues. The people in the constituencies where the election has been delayed will mostly vote in September but no voting has been scheduled in Tigray’s 38 constituencies, a war-torn region of six million.
Opposition boycotts have undermined claims of inclusivity and competition in some of the areas where voting is set to be held on Monday.
Solyana said just three of the 49 registered political parties were not contesting the poll. She added that about 9,500 candidates were running at a national and regional level, which is more than any previous ballot.
“We hope this is going to be a better one, a participatory one, and a credible one,” she said.
