News: HoF speaker says establishing transitional gov’t, dispatching fed. security forces in Tigray among constitutional options
Medihane Ekubamichael @Medihane
Addis Abeba, October 02/2020 – Adem Farah, Speaker of the House of Federation (HoF) says there are enough constitutional means to take measures against those endangering the constitution.
According to the ruling party’s affiliated FanaBC, Adem Farah said that the Ethiopian Parliament had followed a constitutional means to extend Ethiopia’s 6th general election, which was scheduled to take place on August 29.
However, those who are not abiding by the constitution are not seeking peace and are confusing the public, the speaker said. One among such entities is Tigray Regional State, as per the news portal. “In its activities so far the regional state has endangered the constitution,” Adem Farah is quoted as saying.
He said that the election held in Tigray regional state on September 09 was unconstitutional and it contravened the National Election Board of Ethiopia’s (NEBE) mandate. By doing so, the region is found to have violated the constitution and there are enough grounds to take constitutional measures, he further indicated.
Among these constitutional measures one is suspending the regional state’s legislative and executives bodies, he said. Subsequent to this is ensuring the establishment of a regional transitional government, which will be accountable to the federal government. The other constitutional measure is dispatching federal security forces to control the regional state’s actions that have endangered the constitutional order, the news portal reported.
The speaker’s statement came just days after TPLF, the governing party of Tigray regional state said the region will not comply with laws, directives, and regulations, among others, to be enacted by the federal government after its current term in office came to an end on Monday October 05/2020.
In an interview aired on Tigray Mass Media Agency, Asmelash Wolde Sellassie, TPLF executive council member and former chief government whip, said that on October 05, the constitutional term limit for both the House of People’s Representatives (HoPR), the House of Federation (HoF), Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and the Council of Ministers (CoM) he chairs will have come to an end, rendering the incumbent’s stay in power “constitutionally illegal.”
The House of Federation has announced that the 6th year first regular joint session of both the HoF and House of People’s Representatives (HoPR) will convene on Monday.
However, Tigray has already said it would recall all its its representatives from the HoPR and the HoF after October 05 on grounds that the region will not become a part of an “illegitimate government.” Asked what would be the way out, Asmelash referred to a recent statement issued by the Coalition of Ethiopian Federalist Forces. The statement issued on September 17 suggested, among others, “a formation of an independent technocratic caretaker government the composition of which reflects the diversity of the Ethiopian people.”AS