National Electoral Board of Ethiopia stated that it has not utilized the 10 million ETB allocated by the government to support political parties

May 16, 2019

The National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) said it has not used up the 10 million Birr allocated by the government for the daily activities of political parties. If the money had been used, the ruling party EPRDF would have been the only one to benefit. The Electoral Board said it did not find it necessary to give the money to the ruling party, which has full control of the council seats in an unfair election. According to the chairperson of the board, Birtukan Mideksa, the previous system was to distribute the 10 million birr allocated by the government to support the parties according to their seats in the parliament.

It is known that the seats of the councils are held only by the ruling party therefore the money will be returned to the Ministry of Finance as it will not make any difference, said Ms. Birtukan. After returning the 10 million birr allocated back to the Ministry of Finance, she stated that the board is discussing with the Ministry to allow the Board to use it for other matters in the coming budget year. On the other hand, we heard from the chairperson that the civic education curriculum previously provided by the Electoral Board included a political party program and was being revised. According to Ms. Birtukan, the curriculum is being developed in a way that meets international standards and will be developed at the national level in accordance with the culture and language of the community. It is known that the Board is being reorganized and various laws concerning the Board are being amended to ensure the impartiality of the Electoral Board and to restore public confidence in the Board.”

Note

Chairman of the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia, Birtukan Mideksa, presented a 9-month performance report to the House of Peoples 'Representatives' Legal, Justice and Democracy Affairs Standing Committee yesterday. According to the report, in addition to the day-to-day work of the board, a lot of work has been done to ensure the credibility of the board and the performance should be evaluated differently from other times.