Ethiopia's Oromia state forms regional government

By Addis Getachew

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AA) – Ethiopia’s most populous regional state of Oromia on Saturday became the first to form the new regional state for the next five years.

The new Oromia government was formed after the sixth Parliamentary and Regional Councils elections held on June 21.

The National Electoral Board of Ethiopia already announced the incumbent Prosperity Party (PP) of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali as the winner of both parliamentary and regional elections.

Abiy is expected to serve as prime minister for the next five years, leading both his party and the federal government.

Other regional states will form their respective governments in the coming days.

The new federal government will be instituted on Oct. 8 with a joint session of the House of Peoples' Representatives and the House of the Federation.

In a meeting of the Oromia assembly on Saturday, the incumbent Shimelis Abdissa was retained to serve as the president of the Oromia regional state government.

There are scores of constituencies across the country that have yet to elect their respective representatives in the second round of election while the fate of the northernmost region of Tigray is yet to be determined.

The Ethiopian government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which ruled the country for 27 years until 2018, have been fighting since November 2020.