Electoral Board announces final schedule of the upcoming national elections

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The National Election Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) has officially announced that the upcoming 6^th National Elections will be held on the 5^th June 2021. The Board further outlined a new schedule of activities to be undertaken in the course of the general election.

Accordingly, some 45,000 polling stations shall be opened in January, while training of poll workers will be carried throughout February. Registration of candidates shall take place in the final two weeks of February and campaigning starts in the second week of February and ends on 31^st May 2021. From 6^th June, polling stations will begin releasing results and the final national election results will be announced by the Board thereafter, up until 28^th June.

In a bid to advance grassroots civic participation during the period of the election, the Board has also called upon local civil society organizations to submit expressions of interest to observe the upcoming national elections. The announcement followed the Board’s approval of the election observer’s code of conduct after a series of consultations with CSOs and other relevant stakeholders.

Meanwhile, the Board has recently announced the deregistration of the Tigray Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF), after rigorous investigations into the party’s statements and actions, verifying that the party engaged in the use of force to trigger violence. TPLF is therefore devoid of its legal entity and that the leaders of the party can no longer continue to perform any task in the name of the organization.

It is to be recalled that the Board had decided that the schedule for election in Tigray will be announced in due course following close consultations with the provisional regional administration and local communities, which would allow adequate time for preparations to ensure a free and fair election.