Ethiopia: NEBE Begins to Accredit Election Observers
ADDIS ABABA – National Election Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) has announced that it is registering and licensing domestic civic organizations and international election observers after assessing their candidacy proposal against the standard.
NEBE Public Relations Director Soliana Shimelis told the Ethiopian Press Agency (EPA) that civic organizations are acting upon their right to elect, be elected or observe the election process. They are providing list of candidate observers which will be assigned by NEBE to the polling stations.
The international and domestic organizations which are ought to play an observing role are being welcomed by the board. The organizations have presented a total of about 20,000 candidates.
Soliana said NEBE has finalized the process of licensing political parties. Accordingly, about 53 political parties are found to be legitimate candidate for the upcoming elections.
She further added that the next step will be creating media platform whereby the parties could promote themselves through their policies. The parties will be given an airtime to announce their policies and manifestoes to the public.
Ethiopian Broadcast Authority (EBA) will be monitoring the election campaign which will start in a due time. The regulation by the authority obliges both the public and private media to provide political parties with reasonable airtime, she explained.
The board will shortlist name of the candidates at the polling stations and the listed individuals will swear to act as per the regulations throughout the election process.
The board has reduced the number of requirement to be fulfilled for candidacy, but negligence of the political parties to fulfill the requirement has been the problem observed in the process.
She forwarded that NEBE has also played a monitory role in solving the internal problem of some political parties. Some of the problems have arisen from disregarding their own regulations. Thus, the board has taken measures against the parties as per the own regulation based on the standard it set.
Tigray Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF) has been cancelled due to the rigorous violence committed by the founding members of the party. They were also disseminating provocative press releases through the media, she noted. on Ethiopian Herald.
