The National Election Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) held consultations with political parties on logistics and other issues.

The National Election Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) held a consultative meeting with political parties on June 9, 2021. This is one of the frequent consultation forums with political parties, in which the Board reported on the challenges it is facing in printing ballot papers.

The Chairperson of the Board, Birtukan Mideksa, said in her report that political parties submitted their complaints about the number of candidates during the financial support allocation based on the number of candidates. Following the complaints, Birtukan said that the Board compared the Result Reconciliation Form (RRF) with the ballot papers and found out that there are some inconsistencies. Accordingly, an audit conducted by the Operations Unit of the Board found that 54 ballot papers need to be reprinted.

When presented by region

• Afar - 6 constituencies (1 House of Representatives)
• Amhara - 11 constituencies (3 House of Representatives)
• Benishangul Gumuz - 2 constituencies (Regional Council)
• Gambella - 3 constituencies (Regional Council)
• Oromia - 2 constituencies (Regional Council)
• SNNPR - 15 constituencies (1 for the House of Representatives)
• Somali -14 (Regional Council)
• Dire Dawa - 1 (City Council) are constituencies for which ballot papers need to be reprinted.

The Chairperson of the Board presented the administrative measures taken by the Board to address the problem, highlighted the problem of printing ballot papers in these constituencies and the general implications in packing and distribution and asked parties for their comments on the issue. After explaining that such problems occur at times, some parties asked about the possibilities of printing the ballots locally while others suggested holding the election for the above constituencies with those that were previously extended due to security concerns.

Accordingly, the Board explained that there are two options to solve this problem. One is printing the ballots locally and the second option is holding the election for the above constituencies where voting wouldn’t take place on June 14 due to security concerns. The Chairperson also added that voting will take place as planned on June 14 and the Board will continue to provide additional information to parties and voters.