Ethiopia braces for election amid COVID-19

By Addis Getachew

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AA) – Ethiopia may now be in a position to hold parliamentary election after taking precautionary measures against COVID-19, the health minister said on Friday.

Lia Kebede told an emergency session of the House of Peoples’ Representatives the country could now hold the parliamentary election provided all the necessary precautions are put in place against the spread of the coronavirus.

A landlocked country in the Horn of Africa, Ethiopia postponed its sixth parliamentary election twice due to internal conflicts and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last week, in clear defiance of the federal authority, the north Ethiopian Tigray regional state conducted a regional election that was categorically rejected both by the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) and the House of Federation, the upper house of the parliament.

The minister said the nation built preventive capacities in mitigating the circumstances that might lead to the spread of the virus, the local broadcaster FANA quoted Lia as saying.

The country’s testing capacity, she said, increased as the ministry managed to conduct over 11.7 million laboratory tests, detecting 66,224 cases and recording 1,045 deaths.