NEBE Consults Political Parties on Amendments to Three Directives

The National Election Board of Ethiopia (NEBE), on November 29, 2025, consulted political parties on amendments to three directives. The opening speech of the consultation, which focused on the “Directives on Grievance Hearing Committee,” the “Directive on Political Parties Funding,” and the “Directive on Use and Allocation of Mass Media,” was delivered by Chairperson Melatwork Hailu. In her speech, she expressed that the need for amendments to the three directives arose from the amendment of Proclamation 1162/2019, on which the directives are based. The chairperson explained that the directives have undergone various legal protocols, and this consultation was organized to incorporate political parties' input to make the directives more workable.

Following the Chairperson's speech, legal experts Gedion Sisay and Ayetenew Debebe provided a briefing on the three directives. After the briefing, participant political parties forwarded their inputs and questions. The legal experts addressed the concerns of the political parties regarding the provisions of the directives, and the Chairperson provided additional clarification.

In her closing speech, Melatwork expressed that inputs from political parties that comply with the law will be considered. She also addressed the concerns raised by political parties regarding the 7th general election. While discussing these concerns, she reminded everyone that the Board has made efforts to provide information through various communication channels, emphasizing that it has not yet started the registration of candidates. Currently, the Board is collecting preliminary data from political parties, which will serve as input when candidate registration begins.

Moreover, the Chairperson noted that, upon the parties' request, the Board will extend the deadline for preliminary data submission, which was originally stated in the draft election calendar, from November 17, 2025, to December 2, 2025. Given that the calendar is a draft, she requested that the parties continue to send their preliminary data.She also reminded participants that candidate registration will be conducted through the system developed by the Board, with each party's focal person designated to manage the system-based registration.

She also addressed questions regarding “Enabling Conditions.” She stressed that the Board’s understanding of enabling conditions has not changed from the understanding expressed on October 20, 2025, during the announcement of the draft election calendar. The Board will collect data categorized as green, yellow, and red from the respective government and security offices in relation to enabling peace conditions for conducting elections.

Based on the collected data, the Board will organize a meeting that includes parties, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), and the relevant government and security offices. In addition, the Board will assemble a group of teams that incorporate monitoring teams from the Board, parties, and CSOs to conduct on-ground verification of the data collected from government and security offices to identify enabling conditions at the constituency level. Melat emphasized that this verification will not be a one-time activity.