Information from the National Election Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) on the polling held on September 30, 2021

It is known that the National Election Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) held peaceful polling for House of People’s Representatives (HoPR) and Regional Council (RC) seats in Harari and Somali Regions and also the South Western Ethiopia referendum on September 30, 2021.

Based on this,

• Counting has been finalized in 152 poll stations out of 231 in Harari, in 1327 out of 3957 stations in Somali, and 2,678 out of 2,800 stations in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and People's Region (SNNPR). Votes cast by Harari nationals living outside the Harari Region have also been sent to Harari and will be included in the constituency results. The constituencies have received the results and are ready to work on the tabulation process.
• The results of the referendum are being announced, and the results have been released to the Bonga Coordination Office.
• The Board so far has received 42 complaints from competing parties and candidates during the polling day and today. The complaints were filed by eight political parties and nine independent candidates. Some of the ccomplaints include denying access to party candidate representatives, shortcomings observed from the poll workers, abusing candidates, and inaccuracies in the election procedures. The Board has tried to resolve any issues that could be resolved on the Election Day and is looking into complaints that have not yet been resolved.
• 11 civil society organizations (CSOs) have been issued IDs to deploy more than 3,700 observers, and 2569 observers were confirmed to have been stationed yesterday. Of these CSOs, 263 were observing the polling in Harar, 877 in Somali, 1424 in the SNNPR, and five observers made their observations in two poll stations in Dire Dawa.
• The CSOs also submitted their findings (like prohibition from observation, procedure related drawbacks, voter identification problems, voter age, etc.) to the board, and the board has been trying to solve the problems on time. A total of 14 complaints were submitted to the Board by the CSOs.

The Board will provide a series of information regarding the verification and announcement of results in the coming days.

National Election Board of Ethiopia (NEBE)

October 1, 2021