Ethiopia’s electoral board warns government, private organizations from interfering with election process
By Simegnish Yekoye
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia – The Ethiopian National Board of Election (NBE) has warned government and private owned organizations to refrain from interfering with the work of election monitors assigned at different polling stations in Addis Ababa.
According to manager of the board office, some government and private organizations have been calling back to work their employees that have been elected to observe the upcoming elections to their regular work and was interfering with the schedule of NBE.
“Some organizations are complaining they needed their employees back to their jobs and some are even forcing them back. This is illegal,” said Tesfaye Mengesha. “Otherwise we are ready to take the case to court.”
The new election law that was ratified last year by Ethiopian parliament states that the board has that authority to temporarily select professionals, who it thinks are capable of carrying out the elections from any governmental or private organization and assign them to polling stations.
However after the people are selected and trained by the board, some are coming up with different reasons not to carry out their duty, which is affecting the preparation of the election which will take place in less than four months.
“We are warning all government and private organizations to obey the election law or otherwise will be taken to court,” Tesfaye warned.
For the coming election to be held in May 2010, the NBE has organized 1728 poll stations in Addis Ababa alone and each polling stations have five election observers.
According to the schedule by the board, currently the polls are registering voters for the coming election.