Opposition politicians in Ethiopia warned in June 2019 that delaying the national election due in 2020 could deepen ethnic tension and set off unrest. The vote would be the first under Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. Critics said a postponement would damage the democratic standing he had claimed since taking office. Earlier in the month the election board said insecurity, which the United Nations linked to 2.4 million people driven from their homes, could push the parliamentary vote back.
A national census had already been postponed twice, which threatened the maps and voter lists a poll needs. Local elections the year before had also been delayed because of unrest. Board chairwoman Birtukan Mideksa, a former judge who once received a life sentence for activism and whom Abiy later appointed, said preparations were behind schedule for a vote due in May. "If the security of the country is not going to improve, we can't tell voters to go and vote," she said. "There are many internally displaced people."
Merera Gudina, chair of the opposition Oromo Federalist Congress and a former political prisoner, told Reuters that a delay "will anger the public." He added that once that anger surfaced, no one would have the means to control it. His party is based in Oromia, the region at the centre of recent protests. Belete Mola, vice president of the National Movement of Amhara, said the government was playing with fire and had no mandate to postpone. Debretsion Gebremichael, chairman of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front and vice president of Tigray, told a television station that missing the date would be unconstitutional and would leave the government illegitimate after 2020. A spokeswoman for the board, Soleyana Shimeles, said on Friday that officials were still working on the assumption the election would be held on time. An Addis Ababa diplomat told Reuters that waiting might fuel tensions rather than cool them.
Sources: Reuters