On 9 September 2020, the
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 ...
n region of
Tigray held an election for its state council. The election was considered illegal by the federal government of Prime Minister
Abiy Ahmed
Abiy Ahmed Ali ( om, Abiyi Ahmed Alii; am, አብይ አሕመድ ዐሊ; born 15 August 1976) is an Ethiopian politician who has been the 4th prime minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia since 2 April 2018. He won the 2019 ...
, who postponed the
2020 general election earlier in the year because of the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
. According to the election organisers, the
Tigray People's Liberation Front
The Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF; ti, ህዝባዊ ወያነ ሓርነት ትግራይ, lit=Popular Struggle for the Freedom of Tigray), also called the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front, is a left-wing ethnic nationalist paramilitar ...
won 98.2% of the vote and 100% of the 152 seats that were contested.
Electoral environment
France 24
France 24 ( in French) is a French state-owned international news television network based in Paris. Its channels broadcast in French, English, Arabic, and Spanish and are aimed at the overseas market.
Based in the Paris suburb of Issy-les-M ...
reported aging war veterans and university students formed long lines to partake in the elections.
600 candidates from five parties competed for 152 seats in the 190 seat legislature. The distribution of the remaining 38 seats will be determined at a later date by participating parties.
The campaign featured televised debates among leaders of different parties. Opposition parties stated that while they had good access to regional media, they also faced some threats and intimidations.
Boycott
Arena Tigray
Arena Tigray or Arena Tigray For Democracy and Sovereignty ( ti, ዓረና ትግራይ ንዲሞክራሲን ንሉኣላዊነትን) is an Ethiopian political party based in the Tigray Region and participating in the Medrek coalition federall ...
boycotted the election on the grounds of "political provocations by the TPLF", the COVID-19 pandemic and what it saw as the illegitimacy of the election.
The
Tigray Democratic Party
The Tigray Democratic Party ( ti, ትግራይ ዴሞክራሲያዊ ፓርቲ, TDP) is an opposition party in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia.
Creation
The Tigray Democratic party (TDP) describes its origin as an expatriate group in 1995, that shi ...
also stated that it would boycott the election.
Results
On 11 September 2020 the Amharic language service of the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...
reported that, of the 190 members of the state council, 152 were controlled by the TPLF and 38 were to be distributed to rival parties.
However, in local reports in September 2020, the Tigray Region state council allocated 16 seats to the four opposition parties.
References
Elections in Ethiopia
Tigray War
Tigray
2020 establishments in Tigray
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