General elections were held in

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

between 1 and 30 September 1957, to elect 210 members of the

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourbon R ...

, the lower house of the

Ethiopian parliament The Federal Parliamentary Assembly ( am, የፌዴራል ፓርላማ ምክር ቤት, Ye-Fēdēralawī Parilama Mikir Bēt) is Ethiopia's federal legislature. It consists of two chambers: *The House of Federation (upper chamber) *The House ...

(members of the upper house, the Senate, were appointed by the

Emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...

).Keller, Edmond J. ''Revolutionary Ethiopia: From Empire to People's Republic'' (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1988), p. 87 These elections followed the new constitution which had been enacted by Emperor

Haile Selassie Haile Selassie I ( gez, ቀዳማዊ ኀይለ ሥላሴ, Qädamawi Häylä Səllasé, ; born Tafari Makonnen; 23 July 189227 August 1975) was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974. He rose to power as Regent Plenipotentiary of Ethiopia (' ...

in 1955, and were the first ever held in that ancient country.

Electoral system

The regulations for this election were set forth in Proclamation 152 of 1952. This law set up a Central Election Board of three members, which worked with the help of the Ethiopian Ministry of Interior.Bereket Habte Selassie
"Constitutional Development in Ethiopia", ''Journal of African Law''
10 (1966), p. 82 Each rural constituency of 200,000 eligible voters elected two members for the Chamber. Political parties were not authorized at this time, so competition for office were "reduced to the level of individual competition," according to Bahru Zewdu. "Given the attractive salary of deputies as well as the social status enjoyed by them, that competition was understandably keen. Parliament thus became a vehicle for self-promotion rather than a forum of popular representation."Bahru Zewde, ''A History of Modern Ethiopia'' (second ed.) (Oxford: James Currey, 2001), p. 207 Universal suffrage was introduced for everyone born in Ethiopia and over 21 in age. The prospective voter was required to have lived in their electoral district for at least one year, not be disqualified by insanity, loss of civil rights pursuant to the penal code law, or be incarcerated. Candidates had to meet specific property qualifications. According to Edmond Keller, "A candidate had to own at least E$ 850 in land in the constituency he proposed to represent, or he had to possess at least E$ 1,700 in moveable property." Along with the relatively expensive cost of campaigning greatly restricted the number of people who could run for office. As a result, a disproportionate number of candidates were from aristocratic families—26%, according to Edmond Keller.

References

External links

"Ethiopia: The Day of Fulfillment"
''Time magazine'', published 11 November 1957 {{Ethiopia-election-stub

1957 in Ethiopia General elections in Ethiopia Non-partisan elections Election and referendum articles with incomplete results