New Electoral Board members to be endorsed

The House of People’s representatives (HPR) is expected to endorse the nomination of four members of electoral board in accordance with the new electoral law in the coming weeks.
Ethiopia is preparing for the upcoming national election, electoral proclamations and laws are being revised as part of an effort to conduct a free and fair election.
The House of People’s Representative approved the appointment of Birtukan Mideksa as National Election Board Chairperson last November replacing Samia Zakaria.
The parliament is also expected to endorse the nomination of four members of the electoral board.
The recently ratified proclamation, of the National Electoral Board Ethiopia (NEBE) and a new nomination procedure for selecting potential board members, will be undertaken by a special committee under the Prime Minister made up of prominent personalities, academicians, religious leaders as well as civil society organizations.
The Prime Minister has the power to make the nomination and/or to remove any board member upon the endorsement of the House.
The board members shall be appointed by the HPR in accordance with article 102 of the Constitution, upon nomination by the Prime Minister advised by the Committee.
“The Prime Minister established an independent committee that will engage in the recruitment of nominees to membership of the Board,” Soliyana Shemelis communication advisor of the board confirmed.
“Their very first task would be issuing a license for the awaited political parties who finalized collecting signatories to have legal status.” She adds that according to the proclamation, the term of office of management board members will be two electoral terms.
The salary and benefits of the chairman of the management board shall be the same as that of federal government minister and the rest of the management board members shall be the same as that of federal government state minister.
Prime minister Abiy Ahmed has promised that the 2020 election will be free and fair, and that will be thoroughly tested in what promises to be the country’s first real competitive election ever.
Currently there are over 100 registered political parties in the country.