News: TPLF wins regional election by landslide
By Medihane Ekubamichael
Addis Abeba, September 11/2020 – Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the ruling party of Tigray regional state, has won 98.2% of the vote for the regional parliament, taking all 152 seats.
Muluwork Kidanemariam, Commissioner of the Office of Electoral Commission of the National Regional State of Tigray, told BBC Amharic that a further 38 seats in the council, made available following recent electoral law amendment in the region, will be distributed among the four opposition parties that participated in the election.
Five parties including TPLF have participated in the regional election on September 09. According to the preliminary results announced by the Electoral Commission of the National Regional State of Tigray the number of votes secured by the five parties is stated as following: TPLF: 2, 590, 620; Baytona: 20, 839; Tigray Independence Party: 18, 479; Salsay Weyane Tigray: 3, 136; and and Asimba Democratic Party :774. Some 2.7 million people were registered to vote in the election on Wednesday. Muluwork told local media that 98% of the registered voters have cast their voted in any of the 2,672 polling stations.
On August 06, Tigray National Regional Council has amended Art. 48/2 of the regional state’s Constitution changing the First Past the Post clause in the constitution by Mixed Electoral System. Accordingly, a decision was made to make 20% seats in the regional council available for opposition political parties that participated in the election, Muluwork told BBC Amharic.
Prior to the election, Ethiopia’s upper house, the House of Federation (HoF), ruled the election as “unconstitutional” and in violation of Article 9(1) of the Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE) and the outcome would be “void, non-binding and non-applicable.”
Tigray regional state refused to comply with the ruling and instead blamed the the federal government for abandoning its constitutional duty to hold the general election under the pretext of the COVID -19 pandemic. “The people’s right to be administered by leaders of their choice and the unconditional right to self-determination granted by the constitution cannot be stopped even by state of emergency proclamation,” Amanuel Asefa, Head of Tigray Regional State Justice Bureau, told Addis Standard. AS
