The regional council of Tigray assigns five members of the election commission for the debated election Tigray 2020, which has scheduled at the end of August.
Muluwork Kidane Mariam appointed as the commissioner and Tsigereda Dibekulu as a deputy to lead the controversial poll which caused tensions between the federal government and Tigray Regional state.
The National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) who has the responsibility of overseeing elections in Ethiopia, has notified that it could not hold the 6th national election which was scheduled for 29 August 2020 due to the risk of COVID-19 pandemic.
Additionally, the Parliament had passed a decision to extend the terms of the federal and regional councils until COVID-19 will no longer be a public health risk to arrange the national election.
But, The Tigray People Liberation Front (TPLF), the ruling party of the northern region had stood against the decision of the board and the Parliament claiming it as “unconstitutional.”
The NEBE had also released a statement that it will not acknowledge the planned Tigray Election following the region’s request to the board to arrange logistics and manpower for the poll approved by its council.
On the other side, high-level officials of TPLF have been saying that the Prosperity Party which is led by prime minister Abiy will no longer have a legal ground to stay in the federal power since its term ends after September 2020.
According to reports, TPLF discussing with opposition parties in the region presented the approved members of the Electoral Commission of Tigray who currently are professors at Mekele University.
According to reports, three parties including TPLF will run for regional council seats while prominent opposition parties such as Arena Tigray and Tigray Democratic Party have excluded themselves from the running for election.
