News from mekele

Ethiopia will hold its legislative elections delayed on 21 June, announced Thursday of the National Electoral Commission of the Country, a vote that determines which will be the Prime Minister.

There will be no vote in the premature Tigray region.

The elections had been held on June 5, but were postponed earlier this month after the officials said that the Electoral Council needed more time to print voting ballots, train the staff and the staff. registry voters.

According to the revised calendar, the vote will take place after June 21 in some areas due to safety concerns and allow more time to voters to register, said the Electoral Commission.

Ethiopia broadcast the elections twice last year, citing coronavirus pandemic and logistical problems.

Delays have increased tensions with regional leaders in Tigray, who have challenged the legitimacy of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's Government after his term has expired in October. Tigray leaders held their own unauthorized survey in this region, causing the government.

Abiy ordered troops in the region in early November, after Tirana's regional forces would have attacked a federal army base. Six months later, thousands of people were killed in the conflict in Tigray, which holds 6 million people. Atrocity reports led Antony Blinken State Secretary to say that "ethnic cleansing" takes place in the occidental Tigray.

Thursday, the American Senate adopted a resolution condemning "all the violence against civilians" in Tigray and calling for the withdrawal of the troops of the neighboring Eritrea, which also sent troops to the region.

Abiy, who came to power in 2018 and introduced a range of rapid democratic reforms, promised that the survey will be free and right. He will remain prime minister if his party wins a majority of seats in the Ethiopian parliament.

But his government struggled to contain ethnic violence in several regions of Ethiopia and the federal federal OROMO opposition is committed to boycotting the vote, saying that its faces harassing by the authorities. Many of his leaders are still in prison following a wave of violent disorders last summer by the murder of an Oromo musician.

The European Union stated that this does not observe the vote after the Government does not guarantee the independence of its mission and allow it to import communication equipment. In response, Ethiopia stated that external observers "are neither essential nor necessary to certify the credibility of an election".

Earlier this month, the Electoral Commission stated that it had recorded 31.7 million voters with a target of 50 million 110 million inhabitants of Ethiopia.