{"id":285122,"date":"2019-08-25T21:01:19","date_gmt":"2019-08-26T01:01:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.google.com\/articles\/CBMiXmh0dHBzOi8vYm9ya2VuYS5jb20vMjAxOS8wOC8yNS9ldGhpb3BpYW4tcGFybGlhbWVudC1hcHByb3ZlZC1lbGVjdG9yYWwtcG9saXRpY2FsLXBhcnRpZXMtYmlsbC_SAQA?oc=5"},"modified":"2026-10-22T11:19:32","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T15:19:32","slug":"ethiopia-electoral-political-parties-law-2019-proclamation-1162","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/285122","title":{"rendered":"Ethiopia\u2019s parliament passed a new electoral and political parties law in August 2019 over opposition objections"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ethiopia\u2019s House of Peoples\u2019 Representatives unanimously approved a new law on elections, political party registration and electoral conduct at an emergency session on Aug. 24, 2019, borkena reported.<\/p>\n

\"Members<\/figure>\n

Members of Ethiopia\u2019s House of Peoples\u2019 Representatives vote by a show of hands, in a photo dated May 6, 2021. (VOA Amharic \/ Wikimedia Commons, public domain) [file photo]<\/em><\/p>\n

The parliament, whose members all belonged to the ruling Ethiopian People\u2019s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), voted after a debate on a bill prepared by its Law, Justice and Democratic Affairs Standing Committee. The committee amended 149 articles, including the bill\u2019s name, according to Fana Broadcasting Corporation, which borkena cited.<\/p>\n

The law merged three earlier statutes on elections, party registration and the electoral code of conduct into one text. It covers party and candidate activities, the use of mass media during campaigns, coalitions and mergers between parties, and the handling of election disputes.<\/p>\n

It raised the number of founding members needed to register a national party to 10,000 from 1,500, and for a regional party to 4,000 from 750, Reuters reported. Civil servants who run for office must temporarily leave their jobs, without pay or benefits, until the election is over.<\/p>\n

Lawmakers rejected a proposal to declare a female candidate the winner when she ties with a male rival, saying it would violate the principle of gender equality, borkena reported.<\/p>\n

Fifty-seven opposition parties said their proposed amendments had been ignored. \u201cWe are strongly opposed to the provision that civil servants must vacate their jobs if they are going to run for office,\u201d Desalegn Chane, head of the National Movement of Amhara, told Reuters. \u201cThis is unfair. Government employees should be allowed to run.\u201d<\/p>\n

Merera Gudina, chairman of the Oromo Federalist Congress, said his party\u2019s request to lower the signature requirement had been ignored. \u201cIt was the invisible hands of the EPRDF,\u201d he told Reuters. In September 2019, a coalition of opposition parties threatened to boycott the vote unless the law was changed, Reuters reported.<\/p>\n

The law was published as Proclamation No. 1162\/2019, the Ethiopian Electoral, Political Parties Registration and Election\u2019s Code of Conduct Proclamation, according to the National Election Board of Ethiopia. It replaced Proclamations No. 532\/2007, 573\/2008 and 662\/2009.<\/p>\n

The general election it was meant to govern, first set for Aug. 29, 2020, was postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic and held on June 21 and Sept. 30, 2021. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed\u2019s Prosperity Party won at least 410 seats in partial results. Parliament amended the law in 2021 with Proclamation No. 1235\/2021, according to the ILO\u2019s NATLEX database.<\/p>\n

Sources:<\/strong> borkena (Aug. 25, 2019)<\/a>, Reuters: \u201cEthiopia\u2019s opposition parties criticise election law changes\u201d (Aug. 24, 2019)<\/a>, Reuters: \u201cEthiopian opposition parties threaten election boycott\u201d (Sept. 2019)<\/a>, National Election Board of Ethiopia: Election Laws<\/a>, ILO NATLEX: Proclamation No. 1162\/2019<\/a>, Wikipedia: 2021 Ethiopian general election<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ethiopia\u2019s House of Peoples\u2019 Representatives unanimously approved a new law on elections, political party registration and electoral conduct at an emergency session on Aug. 24, 2019, borkena reported.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":838087,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-285122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ethiopian-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/ethiopian-parliament-house-of-peoples-representatives-2021.jpg?fit=1280%2C720&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9NivD-1caK","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285122"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":838091,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285122\/revisions\/838091"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/838087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}